A Different Kind of Life
by hxchick
Summary: This story follows Hotch and his daughter through their lives. AU. Hotch/OC
1. Chapter 1: Prologue

"Can you believe she's graduating from medical school today?' Dave asked.

Hotch looked up from the graduation program he had been staring at. "No…god it seems like just yesterday Haley and I were bringing her home from the hospital, and now she's a grown woman about to start her career. " Hotch's eyes burned as he said this. To him it felt like he should still be tripping over her baby toys on the living room floor, or arguing with her about her curfew, or even helping her through stressful times in college. He can hardly bear to think that in a few short days, his little girl will be packing up and moving across the country to start this new phase in her life…a phase without him.

As if reading his mind, Dave thought aloud "It's too bad that she has to move to San Francisco for her residency. She didn't match with any of the DC hospitals?" Dave was surprised by this, since, as her godfather, he had used his considerable power and called in many favors to make sure she matched at George Washington University hospital in DC. When she broke the news of her move to him and the rest of the team, his first thought was that heads were going to roll for this. He later learned that she did match at both GW and UCSF Medical Center, but she chose UCSF in San Francisco. He was astonished and curious about her choice. Dave knew she was close to her father and the rest of the team, yet she was still moving across the country when she could have stayed right here in DC. He didn't ask her about it though…he learned long ago not to use his connections to try and help her, and since she hadn't made it common knowledge that she was accepted at both hospitals, there was no way of asking her without revealing his own meddling.

"She matched at both GW and UCSF. Keep that bit of knowledge to yourself, she doesn't want that made known to everyone, because she's afraid that everyone will think she's leaving to get away from them. When she got her match results, she and I had a long talk about where she should do her residency. I told her she needed to do what was best for her and that I would support her decision either way. She finally decided that she needed new experiences and she didn't think she could get them here in DC." Hotch thought back to that discussion, remembering how his heart felt like it was tearing in two when she finally decided on UCSF. She seemed afraid of his reaction, so he pasted on a smile and immediately started making Christmas plans with her, but he knew it wouldn't be enough. He wasn't an overbearing father, but for fourteen years it had been just the two of them and they had grown close. Sure they had the arguments and conflicts that any father and daughter have (at some points it seemed like the arguments would never end), but they usually got past them in a few days. He wished Haley could have been here today. He didn't miss her that often anymore, but today was one of those days he wished he could share with her. He thought back to earlier this morning.

**********

He barely made it up the stairs without spilling coffee all over himself. He was carrying a plate with a toasted bagel and butter along with two large cups of coffee. Her lease on her apartment had ended two weeks ago, so she was staying with him until her big move to San Francisco. She had finished her last night at the hospital as a medical student just last night and he knew she was tired, so he thought the least he could do was bring her a light breakfast in bed. He knocked on her door.

"Wake up lazybones." Hotch said this as he set her food down on her nightstand and flipped on the overhead light. All he got was a muffled grunt from her as she buried her head under the pillow.

"Seriously Jane, you need to wake up. You have to be at graduation in less than three hours and I know you won't want to be rushed. Plus, I want to talk to you. " He still got no response from the lump under the blankets. "Jane, don't make me wake you like I did when you were a kid. I may be older now, but I can still flip a mattress with you in it." Hotch grinned as he threatened her with this, knowing it would get a response. She _hated _it when he woke her like that.

Hotch was right, his threat worked. As soon as the words were out of his mouth, Jane's head popped up from under her pillow. "God, I hate it when you threaten that…what time is it?" Jane had been at the hospital until the wee hours of the morning and all she wanted to do was sleep.

Hotch glanced at his watch. "It's nine and you have to be to the auditorium by noon. What time did you get in last night? I thought your last shift was supposed to be done before midnight since that is when you magically turned from a med student into a doctor." Hotch was asking this question only to be polite, he knew exactly what time she got home, 330am. He never slept until she was safely home, but he didn't want her to know this and think that he was keeping tabs on her.

"About 330am." Jane responded. "I was just about to leave at midnight when a bad accident came in to the ER. They were short staffed last night and I couldn't leave them like that." Jane had the same work ethic as her father. He only hoped that the same work ethic wouldn't keep her from having much of an outside life as it had for him.

"Oh my god, is that coffee? Thank you, thank you, _thank you_!" Along with his work ethic, Jane had also inherited her father's addiction to coffee.

"Its coffee and a bagel, you need to eat something before graduation or else you will end up with a headache, and you don't want that today. " Hotch watched as his daughter sat up and slowly began eating. She might not have gotten much sleep, but she slept hard. Her short hair was sticking out in every direction and her blanket and sheet were all over the bed. He hoped she hadn't had nightmares, she hardly ever got them anymore and he didn't want them to return.

"Ymmmf smmmmf mmmmfffeee?" Jane said through a mouth full of bagel.

"I'm sorry, I don't speak bagel," Hotch said, reaching for the second cup of coffee. "How about chewing and swallowing and _then _speaking?" This was something that hadn't changed since she was a child. It was a habit that he had long since gotten used to, although it still unnerved him a bit, he was always afraid she was going to choke.

Jane smiled at him, chewed exaggeratedly and swallowed her large bite of bagel. "You said you wanted to talk to me?"

"I do, I have a graduation present for you."

Jane grinned, "Why am I a bit scared to see what this present is?"

Hotch looked confused, "Why would you be scared?"

Jane stared at him for a minute. "Well let's see. When I graduated from grade school, your present to me was self defense lessons with Derek so I could defend myself against any 'hormonal high school guys who may want to go farther with me than either one of us would be comfortable with.' "Jane paused, thinking back to those lessons. "When I graduated high school, your present was pepper spray so I could stay safe while walking around campus. When I graduated college, your present was a handgun, so I could protect myself in my new apartment." Jane paused again…she hadn't needed shooting lessons for that gift; her dad began taking her to the shooting range when she was fifteen. She was a pretty good shot if she did say so herself. "So I'm wondering, what will it be this time? Hand grenades? A rocket launcher?"

Hotch smiled at her. Sure, he didn't think he had been an over protective father, although Jane would disagree with him on that, but he needed to make sure his little girl could take care of herself. He had witnessed and a few times been on the receiving end of the worst of humanity and it gave him peace of mind to know that his daughter was in a better position to take care of herself than most of the victims he had seen.

"No weapons and nothing violent this time." Hotch said as he pulled a jewelry box out of his pocket and handed it to her. She took it from him and opened it and gave a little gasp.

"This was mom's, wasn't it? I remember her wearing it almost every day." Jane could feel her eyes getting wet as Hotch helped secure it around her neck.

"It was your mom's. I got it for her just after we were married. We were pretty poor, I was just starting out in the world of law, but it was your mother's birthday. I went in to this little jewelry shop and saw this necklace and I just knew it was meant for her. I got to talking with the old couple who owned the store, it turns out he made everything by hand and by the end of our talk; he decided to let me have it for half price. Your mother loved it and you're right, she wore it until the day she died."

Jane was openly crying at this point. She hadn't expected this. It had been a stressful few weeks, what with finals and finishing her clinical rotation, not to mention her big move looming in the next few days. "I don't miss her as much anymore, but I miss her today. I really wish she was here for this."

Hotch swallowed hard and pulled her into a hug. "She is here with us sweetie, she's looking down at you and she is proud, almost as proud as I am." He hugged her for a few minutes and then let her go and said, "Your mom wouldn't want us to be sad today. You have a lot of things to do before noon, so go do them. We'll leave for graduation at 1130am." She looked at him and smiled. Always the drill sergeant.

**********

Hotch was pulled out of his reverie by a voice announcing over the loudspeaker, "The graduation ceremony will begin in ten minutes. All graduates should be lined up and friends and family should begin taking their seats." Hotch looked at Dave, "I guess that's us." They both made their way over to chairs Emily was holding for them, the rest of the team was already seated.

"I don't want to know how you got nine tickets to this when all of the other graduates only got five, do I?" Hotch said to Dave as they were sitting down.

"Let's just say that someone owed me a favor and leave it at that, shall we?" Dave replied.

"God help you if my daughter finds out that you pulled in favors on her behalf, because no one else will." Hotch remembered the last time Dave used his contacts to help his daughter and shivered. He rarely saw Jane as mad as she was that day.

Emily leaned over Kevin and Garcia and asked Hotch, "So she chose emergency medicine as her specialty?"

"Yeah, I wanted her to do something safe like dermatology, or internal medicine, but she fell in love with the ER after her first clinical rotation. She told me she was addicted to the adrenaline rush the ER gave her."

Emily snorted, "I wonder where she gets that from?" The whole team smiled.

Hotch was about to agree with her when the opening notes from Pomp and Circumstance started playing. JJ, Will, Reid, Morgan and Dave all started taking pictures like insane people and kept taking pictures throughout the ceremony, but Hotch just sat back and watched the proceedings, and when they called "Dr. Jane Grace Hotchner, Summa Cum Laude," he thought his heart would burst with pride.

**********

_Authors Note: This is my first attempt at writing a story, reviews are greatly appreciated. This is a totally alternate universe, though I may pull in various parts of the show. I see this story jumping around to various times in Jane and Hotch's lives, depending on how my muse hits me, but I will try and identify Jane's age at the beginning of each chapter. I will probably have a bulk of the story take place in her teen years, as those are good years for conflict/drama/events. The point of view might jump around as well. Since this is my first try at this and it's hard enough keeping the story straight in my head, I am not playing around much with the actual timeline. That is, the charecters other than Jane will not age or change much. If they did, Dave would be close to eighty in this scene, and I just can't picture that. Again, reviews are appreciated, as are ideas if you have anything you would like to see here._


	2. Chapter 2: Bringing Home Baby

Disclaimer: Criminal Minds is owned by CBS. I own nothing but my imagination.

A Different Kind of Life-Chapter 2

Bringing Home Baby

_**Jane is 2 days old in this chapter**_

"Aaron the posted speed limit is 45mph, I think you can go faster than 25mph." Haley said this from the back seat of the SUV.

Hotch glanced at Haley in the rearview mirror. "No way, that's my little girl back there and I am going to keep her safe and sound. In fact, both of my favorite girls are back there and I'm not taking any chances." Hotch caught the smile from his wife and thought about how both of their lives had changed.

Haley's pregnancy had caught them both by surprise. She was secure in a nice private school teaching first grade and he was making a name for himself in the FBI. Although they both wanted kids, it was always something of a "someday" type of thing. Someday had caught up with them in a big way.

For the most part, her pregnancy went smoothly. There was the normal morning sickness, which was difficult to deal with while trying to teach 15 first graders. At her ultrasound they found out they were having a girl, which let them get a head start on buying clothes and decorating the nursery. Even deciding on the baby's name didn't take too long. They both knew they didn't want something weird like Apple or Seven, so they both made lists of their favorite girl names and Jane appeared near the top of both of their lists. Grace was decided as the middle name after one Haley's favorite aunts.

The only real scare they had was at her fifth month, when Haley found a lump in her breast. She had a history of breast cancer in her family, so she always performed her monthly breast exams and that month she felt a pea sized lump in her left breast. Haley had it biopsied right away and she and Hotch spent an agonizing three days waiting for the results. They knew that the baby wouldn't survive if Haley delivered at that stage in her pregnancy and they were afraid of what chemo and radiation would do to the baby. Haley was toying with the idea of holding off on chemo and radiation until the pregnancy went to full-term, but Hotch was terrified that by that time it would have spread too far. He hated himself for it, but if he had to choose between the baby and Haley, he chose Haley. Fortunately they never had to make that decision because the lump turned out to be benign.

Hotch finally pulled into their driveway and helped his wife out of the car, reached in for his daughter, and helped the two of them up to the house. Their neighbor, Mrs. Jenkins saw them and came rushing up to see them. She cooed at the baby for a few minutes and then turned to leave so they could get settled. Hotch stopped her.

"Mrs. Jenkins, would you mind taking a picture of the three of us before we go into the house?" Hotch asked. He handed her his digital camera and he and Haley posed with Jane. Hotch thanked her and looked at the digital screen and choked up. It was corny, but all he could think of was "and they all lived happily ever after."


	3. Chapter 3: Say What?

Disclaimer: Criminal Minds is owned by CBS. I do not own Pulp Fiction. I own nothing but my imagination.

A Different Kind of Life-Chapter 3

Say What?

_**Jane is 5 years old in this chapter**_

"Aaaahhhh" Hotch thought as he settled on the couch with an ice cold beer in his hand. It had been a long couple of days, the team had worked on a bad case in Alabama and he was glad to be home with his wife and daughter. Haley was in the kitchen cleaning up after dinner and Jane was in the corner of the living room playing with her stuffed animals. Hotch felt guilty not going over to play with her, but he needed to unwind for a little while. He picked up the remote and started surfing the channels.

"Perfect!" He thought as he stopped on the movie Pulp Fiction. He loved this movie and hadn't seen it in awhile. He glanced over at Jane, who was having a long conversation with one of her dolls. "Eh, she won't pay attention to what's on the TV, she has her dolls." Hotch reasoned to himself that it would be OK for him to watch his movie with his five year old daughter in the room.

An hour later his attention was pulled from his movie by Haley shrieking at him. "You're watching THIS with our daughter nearby?"

"She's fine, she's playing in the corner with her stuffed animals, she didn't even know what was on the TV." Hotch replied as they both looked over at Jane. Unfortunately for Hotch, Jane chose this exact time to set one of her dolls on doll chair, make the shape of a gun with her thumb and index finger and pretend to shoot it.

"Oh, shit" Hotch mumbled as he went over to his daughter. Haley looked like she was about to breathe fire at him and he knew that he had to do something.

"Jane, sweetie? Just because you see something on TV doesn't mean you have to repeat those actions. Guns are _never_ ok, even if you're just pretending with your dolls. Ok?" Hotch knew he was in deep shit with Haley and he was trying to climb out of it.

"Ok daddy." Jane replied with a smile. Haley just stared at him for a minute, shook her head and left the room. Hotch figured this little crisis was over. He thought wrong.

**********

Hotch was heading out for lunch the next day when his cell phone rang. "Haley Cell" flashed across the caller id screen. "That's odd" Hotch thought. Haley didn't usually call him during the day.

"Hey honey. What's up?" Hotch asked as he made his way to his car.

"Jane's principal called me; she wants to see both of us this afternoon. Can you make it by 330pm?" While Haley taught first grade at a private school, even with the employee discount it was still way too expensive for the Hotchners to send Jane there. She was in a much more affordable private school near headquarters.

"Ummm, yeah…I can make it; I'll skip lunch and get some work done now." Hotch replied as he turned back towards the office. "Do you have any idea what she wants to talk to us about?" He asked her.

"I have no idea, but she asked that we both be there promptly at 330pm." Haley responded.

"No problem, I'll see you then. I love you" Hotch told her this as he got back to his office.

"Love you too."

*********

Hotch arrived at Jane's school at the same time as Haley. They both walked into the school's office at 325pm and found Jane sitting there. She looked up and saw her mom and dad and it just about blew her mind.

"Mommy! Daddy! Look what I drew today." Jane held up a picture of a house with her, Hotch, Haley and a dog. The dog was wishful thinking on her part; they couldn't have one because Hotch was allergic to them.

"That's beautiful honey! Right now though, you need to wait here, we need to talk to your principal." Hotch bent down and gave Jane a kiss before following Haley into the principal's office. God, was there a worse place to be? He had been out of school forever and he still felt nervous in the principal's office.

"There was a bit of an incident involving Jane and another boy today." The principal said, jumping right in.

"What kind of incident?" Haley asked, as Hotch silently panicked. Please don't let it be a kiss, he thought. He was hoping to have another ten, twenty or even thirty years before he had to deal with his daughter kissing a boy.

"It seems that after reading to the class today, Jane's teacher started asking the students questions about the reading to see how much they had learned from it. The teacher called on the boy and the boy didn't hear her, so he said 'What?' The boy also has a stutter, so he asked 'What…what?' At this point, Jane interrupted and said, and I quote, 'Say what again, motherfucker.'"

Hotch visibly paled and felt light headed when the principal said this. He was in deep shit and he knew it. That line was straight out of a scene in Pulp Fiction. Apparently Jane had been paying more attention to the TV than he thought. He glanced over at Haley, who looked like she was ready to kill him.

Hotch explained all of this to the principal and Haley promised the principal that they would monitor Jane's television viewing and that it wouldn't happen again, all the while looking like she wanted to grab Hotch's weapon and shoot him with it.

"Well, be that as it may, I feel that Jane should be kept out of school until Monday. That way both you and Jane will have had enough time to reflect on this incident." The principal responded.

Hotch thought about this for a second. "Wait, you're suspending her?" This was bad…really bad, his daughter was being suspended from kindergarten! Haley was going to murder him slowly and she had every right to. He couldn't believe he was stupid enough to watch the movie with his daughter in the room. He really was father of the year.

"Just for tomorrow and as long as there are no more 'incidents' this year, her suspension will stay off of her permanent record." The principal said, dismissing them.

They went into the lobby of the office, collected Jane and went home. Haley didn't speak to him the whole time.

**********

When they got home, they sat Jane down at the kitchen table and asked her about what happened. Hotch reminded her that last night they had a long talk about not repeating what she saw in the movies.

"But daddy, you said not to repeat the actions, I didn't, I repeated the _words_." Jesus Christ, she had him. If she was outsmarting him now, he shuddered to think about what she would be like as a teenager.

"Jane, a lot of the time the words you hear in the movies shouldn't be repeated either." Hotch said.

"But I heard you say fuck that time you spilled coffee on your computer, and mommy said it yesterday when she burned her hand cooking dinner. And I've heard Uncle Dave, Uncle Derek, Uncle Jason, Aunt Emily…"

"Ok, ok, I know you've heard grown-ups say that word before, but it is not a word for little girls. Ok?" Hotch hoped Jane would just agree with him so he could start defending himself to his wife.

"Ok daddy. Can I go play now?" Jane asked as she looked out the window at her swing set.

"Yes but stay where we can see you." Hotch replied, still not looking at Haley.

Jane ran outside and Hotch finally brought his eyes up to Haley. To his amazement, she looked like she was trying not to laugh. "Well if that's the worst trouble she ever gets into in school, we'll be lucky." She said as she pulled Hotch in for a kiss.


	4. Chapter 4: Drive Me Crazy

Disclaimer: Criminal Minds is owned by CBS. I own nothing but my imagination.

A Different Kind of Life-Chapter 4

Drive Me Crazy

_**Jane is 16 years old in this chapter**_

Hotch woke up to a ringing phone. He shook off his sleep disorientation enough to realize that he was in his office at headquarters. "Damn," he thought, "I fell asleep." He glanced at his watch, 1100pm, not too bad. He hadn't fallen asleep in his office in a while, usually if he stayed past 900pm Jane called him to wonder where he was but she was at a party tonight so he didn't have his wake up call. His cell phone rang again.

"Hotchner."

"Aaron Hotchner?" The voice on the other end asked.

"Speaking."

"Do you have a daughter named Jane Hotchner?"

"Yes, is something wrong?" Hotch asked, waking up fully.

"This is George Washington University Hospital calling, we have your daughter in the ER. She was in a car accident this evening-"

"Oh my god! Is she all right?" Hotch asked, panicking. His heart was pounding and he felt like he could barely breathe.

"She's fine. The car she was in went off the road and hit a tree. All of the kids in the car are fine, but a passing driver called 911 and since all of the kids are under eighteen, they had to be brought in for a medical evaluation. Seriously, she's fine, but she needs a parent or guardian to pick her up from the ER."

"I'll be right there." Hotch said grabbing for his keys and racing out of his office.

"Again Mr. Hotchner, your daughter is fine. Please don't drive like a maniac trying to get here."

**********

Hotch tried to follow the hospital's advice, but he made record time getting to the ER. He made his way through the crowded ER waiting room and pushed his way to the front of the line at the triage desk.

"My name is Aaron Hotchner and my daughter was brought here, she was in a car accident."

"It will be just a few minutes sir, I have to-" The nurse was interrupted by Hotch.

"I don't think you understand. I am an armed federal agent…" At this point Hotch flashed his credentials, "whose daughter was brought in by ambulance tonight. I. Want. To. See. Her. NOW!" Hotch didn't like intimidating people, but he had no problem doing it tonight.

The nurse looked at him wide eyed. "Sir, I can't leave my desk to take you to her room, but since you are FBI you can go without an escort. She's in room 17."

"Thank you!" Hotch called over his shoulder as he began running down the hallway.

He opened the door to room 17 and saw a doctor stitching up a cut on the right side of his daughter's face.

"They told me you were fine!" Hotch said as he went over to her non-injured side to give her a hug. He had never been so glad to see her in all of her life.

"I _am _fine, some broken glass scraped my face, that's all. It's only going to be about three stitches, right doc?" Jane tried to reassure her father.

"Mr. Hotchner, your daughter is fine. She was wearing her seat belt, she didn't hit her head, and other than some stiffness, she has no pain anywhere else. Considering the force of impact the car had with the tree, I would say she is one very lucky young lady. I have her discharge paperwork right here and you can take her home." The doctor said, as he put the last stitch in Jane's cheek.

Hotch helped Jane off of the exam table. "How are the other kids in the car?" Hotch asked the doctor as they made their way down the ER's hallway.

"They are all OK, except for the driver, who will have a hell of a hangover in the morning." The doctor replied.

"WHAT?" Jane and her father both asked at the same time. Hotch looked at his daughter.

"YOU GOT INTO A CAR WITH A DRUNK DRIVER BEHIND THE WHEEL?!" Hotch roared.

"Dad, I…I-" Jane tried to explain.

"Save it Jane, we will discuss this when we get home." Hotch said tightly as he lowered his voice, realizing that he was beginning to make a scene

**********

Hotch drove more carefully on the way home from the hospital than he did on the way to the hospital, but inside he was seething. He had talked to her numerous times about not getting in a car with a drunk driver behind the wheel. Haley had a brother who died because of a drunk driver and she had drilled it into Jane's head before she died and he had taken over after she died.

Hotch had never physically disciplined his daughter, not even when she was a toddler, but right now he wanted nothing more than to take her over his knee and paddle some sense into her. What was she thinking?!

**********

Jane sat nervously in her passenger seat, sneaking glances at her father every few minutes. That vein above his temple was throbbing and he was gripping the wheel so tightly that she thought he would be permanently attached to it.

"Dad, I didn't-" Jane stopped as she got The Glare from her father.

"Not one word Jane. Not one single, solitary, fucking word. We will talk at home." Hotch said slowly and calmly.

Jane knew she was in deep shit. She was getting the death glare, the vein in his temple was pulsing like none other and he used the F-word. He NEVER used the F-word. He used every other word, but not that one. He was also speaking slowly and calmly, that was never a good sign.

They pulled up to the house and both got out, going in through the back door at the kitchen. Jane went through the door first, followed by her father. She sat down at the kitchen table and watched as her father closed and locked the door and turned toward her. He then opened his wallet, pulled out a ten dollar bill and dropped it in the swear jar.

'Oh SHIT!' Jane thought, he is _really_ mad! Hotch had, reluctantly, gotten used to hearing his daughter swear over the years. The team frequently came over to their house to discuss cases with him or to socialize with both of them and their language wasn't exactly the cleanest. As long as she didn't use the F-word and as long as she could tell when it was inappropriate to use that kind of language, he didn't really mind, until this past year. That's when he decided to clean up his, Jane's and the team's language all at once. He set out swear jars at both the office and at home and whenever anyone swore they put one dollar in the jar. At the end of each month they all got together and decided what charity to donate the money towards. That first month, they all could have gone to Hawaii on the money that was in both of the jars, but it lessened each month.

"Did you fall and hit your head earlier tonight?" Hotch asked her, out of the blue.

Jane was confused. "What?"

"Did you fall and hit your head? That is the only reason I can think of as to why you would _ever_ get into a car with someone who had been drinking." Hotch started getting louder as he spoke. "We have been over and over and over and over and _OVER _this. If you or your friends are too drunk to drive, call me and I will pick you up! I may not be overly happy that you are drunk, but I won't be half as mad as I am now! What the hell were you thinking?"

"I didn't-" Jane tried to explain, but was cut off by her irate father.

"You didn't think? You're damn right you didn't . When you asked if you could go to that party tonight part of me wanted to say no, that you're too young to go out and party on the weekends, but the other part of me, the part that said yes, the part that evidently misjudged you, thought that you're sixteen now and you need some freedom. Believe me, I will not make that mistake again anytime soon. Jesus Christ Jane! Your mother lost her brother because of a drunk driver, Garcia lost both of her fucking parents because of a drunk driver, and you pull this shit?!" He was yelling loudly now.

Jane was crying now. "Can I at least explain my side of it?" she asked through her tears. Her dad had yelled at her before, but not like this. Never like this.

"No, you have no side! Was James driving drunk and were you a passenger in the car?" Hotch asked and got no response. "Answer me!" He yelled at her.

Jane answered through her tears, "I guess so, but-"

"No! No buts! You were in a car with a drunk driver, that's the end of it, that's your side of the story. God Jane, I buried your mother less than four fucking years ago, do I really need to worry about having to bury _you_ now? Is that what you want, to die at sixteen?!" Hotch was really yelling now and he knew he needed to calm down.

Hotch sat down at the table, across from his daughter, who was trying to get her crying under control. He knew he was being hard on her, but this was one message that he needed to get across to her. Plus, he was _really _pissed at her. He couldn't remember if he had ever been this angry and disappointed in her.

"So here's how it's going to go" he said calmly to her. "Until further notice you are on total lockdown. Give me your cell phone." Jane handed it to him and watched as he punched in a code and then gave it back to her. "Your cell phone will now only call me and the other members of the team. Your car is a distant memory, you will have to earn my trust back for that. You can keep your laptop, since I know that you need it for school, but the wi-fi router will only be turned on from 700pm-900pm every night. You can still go for your morning run, but that's it. You will be home by 4:00pm every day, and since the team is starting a two week stand down on Monday, don't think you will be able to sweet talk Garcia into letting you go out at night. You _will _ be a model prisoner, or I _will _make things worse around here for you."

"I don't see how" Jane muttered without thinking and immediately knew she had made a big mistake.

"Backtalk? Really? _REALLY?! _Well let's see how I can make it worse for you…you just lost TV privileges. How's that?" Hotch yelled at her. "Any other smartass comments?"

"No." Jane whispered.

"Good, now get to bed." Hotch ordered her.

**********

Jane tried to stop crying while she was getting ready for bed, but it was hard. She couldn't believe the way her dad had yelled at her, he had never yelled at her like that before and he hadn't even let her give her side of the story. She hadn't known James was drunk when she got into the car with him. He couldn't have been drunk, she had been with him all night and he hadn't had any beer. The only thing he had that she hadn't was the punch, maybe it was spiked? She would have told her dad that if he had let her get a word in. She knew better than to ride with a drunk driver. God, her mom started lecturing her about that when she was nine years old for god sakes! Her mom…her mom _never_ would have yelled at her like that and she would have let her tell her side of the story. Jane teared up again, she really missed her mom tonight. She needed someone on her side.

**********

_This is going to be at least a two part story arc. Reviews are always appreciated!_


	5. Chapter 5: Tales From Total Lockdown

Disclaimer: Criminal Minds is owned by CBS. I own nothing but my imagination.

A Different Kind of Life-Chapter 5

Tales From Total Lockdown

_**This is a continuation from chapter 4. Jane is 16 years old in this chapter**_

It was a tense weekend in the Hotchner household, for the most part, Jane and Aaron avoided each other like the plague. On both Saturday and Sunday, Jane woke up at 600am for her morning run. She hated getting up that early, especially on the weekends, but unless she had pulled an all-nighter the night before, her internal clock wouldn't let her sleep any later. On both days she arrived back home at about 730am to find her father sitting at the kitchen table reading the newspaper and eating his breakfast. They both ignored each other and Jane grabbed a granola bar and a bottle of water before heading up to her bedroom where she stayed for the rest of each day.

The first day of "total lockdown" was hard for Jane. For the first time in a long time she didn't have much homework over the weekend and she had planned to spend much of it surfing the internet and getting caught up on facebook, but now that the Wi-Fi router was only on for two hours she had a lot of free time on her hands. At about 300pm on Saturday she remembered that her friend Amy had leant her the first two seasons of _Gilmore Girls_. She might have had her TV privileges revoked, but the DVD's played fine on her laptop and they saved her sanity. During her two hours of online time she got caught up with emails, facebook and she posted to her new blog. Sunday was pretty much identical to Saturday.

Jane spent most of Saturday avoiding her father because she was still a bit scared of him. She had never seen him that mad before. On Sunday her fear turned to anger. She still couldn't believe that she was being punished for something that didn't happen. James wasn't drunk, she was sure of it! She was also pissed as hell that he never let her get a word in edgewise and that he brought her mother up while he was shouting at her. She spent Sunday avoiding him because she knew that if she said anything to him, it would just get her into more trouble and she was hoping to be off of lockdown before the homecoming dance in two weeks. She sighed when she thought of the dance. Just getting her father to let her go to the dance with a boy was going to be a whole other argument.

**********

Because the team was heading into a stand-down, Hotch was able to spend the weekend at home getting caught up on paperwork. He had planned on having a father-daughter weekend with Jane, taking her to some of their favorite places in the city, but after the events of Friday night that plan was out the window. He woke up at 600am when she left the house as he could never sleep until she was safely back home (except for falling asleep at the office). He showered and made sure he was down in the kitchen when she got home. He was a little worried that she was skipping lunch since she was thin to begin with, but he reasoned that it was only for a few days.

Hotch was still angry with Jane. If there was one thing both he and Haley had expected from her was that she would never get into a car with a drunk driver. He was worried about what other directives from him she had ignored, but he couldn't go there in his mind. If he thought of her doing drugs or having sex, he would lose it completely and he knew that wouldn't be good for either one of them. A small part of him knew that he had over reacted the other night, that part of him wanted to comfort her as she sat at the table crying, but most of him thought his anger was justified.

**********

Dinner was a strained affair both nights. Normally Hotch tried to have dinner with Jane at least four times per week as both of their schedules permitted. They would discuss their days and anything else that was going on. They also took turns cooking each night. Jane was a talented cook, having learned some from her mother, some from her uncle Sean and some just by experimenting. She learned soon after her mother died that if she wanted a meal that didn't come out of the freezer section of the grocery store, she needed to step up and start cooking. The first couple of years after Haley died, Jane did most of the cooking but she was busier now, so they agreed to take turns cooking dinner. When it was Hotch's turn it was usually something frozen or takeout.

Saturday night was Jane's night to cook. Normally she would make something elaborate that would leave them with leftovers for the rest of the week, but this Saturday all she had done was set out sandwich fixings and potato chips. Hotch could tell by the supper she fixed that she was still upset, but so was he, so they both ate dinner in a strained silence. Sunday was a repeat of Saturday, the only difference being they had frozen lasagna instead of sandwiches.

**********

For the first time in a long time, Jane looked forward to school on Monday as it was a way to get out of the house. She woke up extra early to take her morning run since she had to take the Metro to school instead of her car. She got back to the house and found her father talking on his cell phone and it didn't look like he had showered yet. Good! She ran to her bathroom and jumped in the shower using up every drop of hot water. She knew it was petty, but it made her feel good to get a little bit of revenge on him. He had offered to drive her to the Metro stop since it was on his way to work, but she declined his offer, she was still pissed as hell at him and right now she didn't want a single thing from him.

**********

'Dammit!' Hotch thought as the cold water hit his back, 'She used up all of the hot water.' He knew she had done it on purpose, her own little passive-aggressive payback on him for grounding her. He quickly washed up and then wrapped up in a towel, trying to preserve some of his body heat. He got dressed and headed into work. Once there, he automatically headed for Garcia's office momentarily forgetting that she was on vacation today, something about a long weekend with Kevin.

He looked around her office and smiled. Along with her normal collection of oddities, there were many pictures of his daughter. After Haley died, Garcia started looking after Jane when he was called out of town on cases. Penelope and Jane had grown very close over the last four years and after him, Garcia was the person who knew Jane best. Hell, she probably knew his daughter better than he did since Garcia was the one she confided in about "girl stuff." He had come here not only to tell her about Jane's accident, but to also gain an ally. It would have to wait until tomorrow.

At 400pm on the dot he called home to make sure Jane was there on time. She was. He let her know that he had a meeting that would last until about 730pm. She didn't respond.

"Did you hear me Jane?" Hotch asked, irritated.

"Yes" she responded in a snippy tone and hung up the phone.

Hotch sat in his office, staring at the phone in disbelief. She was pissed at him! She was the one who risked life and limb, and _she_ was pissed at _him. _Hotch felt the anger from the past weekend creep back into him. He really wanted to take away another privilege of hers, but when he thought about it he realized that he had taken everything away except for her laptop, which she needed for school. He supposed that he would just keep her grounded for longer than he had originally planned.

**********

Tuesday started the same way as Monday had, except this time Hotch was smart enough into get to the shower before Jane got home. He really wanted to use up all of the hot water on her as payback for Monday, but he decided that he didn't want to stoop to the level of a sixteen year old. Once again he headed straight for Garcia's office when he got to work.

"How was your weekend, my fearless leader?" Garcia asked, picking up her cup of coffee.

Hotch grinned, "Not as fun as yours, I'll bet. How was your time off?"

Garcia got a dreamy look in her eyes. "In the interest of sparing us both sexual harassment training, I'll just say that it was wonderfully exhausting."

Hotch groaned to himself. "God Garcia, that was WAY too much information. Most people would have just said 'my vacation was fine, thank you.'"

"Yes, but I've never been like most people."

"No, you haven't" Hotch agreed, and then he got serious. "Penelope, I need you to not freak out at what I am about to tell you, OK?"

"Oookkayyy…" Garcia responded apprehensively.

"Jane was in a car accident on Friday night, but-" Hotch was abruptly cut off.

"Oh my GOD! Is she ok? Was she hurt? Is she in the hospital? Why didn't you call me? How did it happen? Where did-" Garcia was talking so fast that Hotch could barely understand her.

"Whoa, remember no freaking out, right?" Hotch interrupted. "First of all, she's fine. She has a small cut on her right cheek that required three stitches, but that's it. I didn't call you because you needed the time off to de-stress."

"Ok" Garcia said, trying to slow her breathing. "As long as she's OK."

"Garcia, there's something else you need to know. The driver was drunk. Jane got into a car with a drunk driver." Hotch didn't have to wait long for her reaction.

"I'll kill her!" Garcia yelled.

Hotch couldn't help but smile. This was part of what he missed about Haley, having someone who loved and worried about his daughter as much as he did. He was also happy that Garcia shared his anger, it made him feel better about laying into Jane on Friday night.

"Don't worry about that" Hotch responded, "After the 'discussion' we had Friday night and the punishment I handed down to her, I don't think she'll make that mistake again." Hotch went on to describe their confrontation on Friday night and the details of the "total lockdown" punishment he gave Jane.

"It seems like you took care of it then. What did she have to say about the whole thing?" Garcia asked.

"What do you mean?"

"What was her defense? What was her side of it?" Garcia prodded him.

"Um…well…" Hotch tried to buy some time to think of something to say.

"You _did_ let her tell you her side, right?" Garcia was met by silence. "Good god Aaron! You have to let her tell you what happened. Maybe she didn't know he had been drinking. Maybe something was spiked. Maybe the doctor was wrong. She's not one of your team members, you can't just blindly order her around or yell at her and expect her to follow your orders!"

For once, Hotch had nothing to say.

"She has a free period coming up at school, I'll call her and talk to her and try to figure out what happened. You didn't take away her cell phone, did you?"

"No, I just restricted it to members of the team."

"Good. For future reference, _this _is why you call me when something like this happens." Garcia said, sighing.

**********

Jane loved that she had a free period at 1000am. She would have liked it better if it was the first period of the day so she could come in later, but 1000am gave her enough time to wake up, get her two hardest classes over with and have good conversations with her friends as almost all of them also had the 1000am period free. She felt good being at school, there wasn't the tension that there was at her house…she thought it was a sad day when she would rather be in school than at home. She was just sitting down with a cup of coffee, about to discuss _Gilmore Girls_ with some of her friends when her cell phone rang. 'Garcia Cell' flashed across her screen and for a fleeting moment Jane considered ignoring the call, she was worried that Garcia had already taken her dad's side, but she didn't want Garcia mad at her and if she ignored the call she didn't put it past Penelope to come to school to talk to her.

"I have to take this, guys" Jane said as she left the table and went outside into the small courtyard off of the common area.

"Hi Pen" Jane said, apprehensively.

"So do you want to tell me what happened before I start jumping to conclusions like your father did?" Garcia asked her.

"I swear Pen, I didn't know he was drunk…I don't know how he could have been drunk, I was with him all night and we both drank the same things except for the punch, which he had and I didn't. I would _never _get in the car with a drunk driver and my friends and I don't drink anyway so it's never been a problem!" Jane was speaking rapidly, desperately hoping that Penelope believed her.

"Jane, I know you would never get into a car with a drunk driver, that's why I was surprised when your dad told me about the weekend. Why didn't you tell him all of this?" Garcia asked her.

"He wouldn't let me!" Jane responded loudly, her voice high pitched. "Once the doctor in the ER told him that James was drunk, he wouldn't listen to me! We got home and he started yelling and yelling and YELLING at me without letting me talk! He brought up mom when he was yelling at me and…and he scared me, Pen. I've never heard him like that before." Jane was practically shouting through most of this, but she got quiet when she told Penelope about her dad scaring her and she was near tears at the end.

"Keep it together, Sweets. I'm going to find out what happened and I'll talk to your dad. He's in meetings most of the day today and tomorrow, so it might take a few days, but I'll talk to him. Stay strong and call me if you need to talk, at least I'm one of the numbers you can still call on your cell phone." Garcia tried to reassure her.

Jane sniffled, "Thanks Pen."

**********

At 230pm, Garcia knocked on Hotch's door.

"Come in."

She went into his office and waited for him to look up from his paperwork.

"What can I do for you, Garcia?" Hotch asked.

"I thought you had meetings all day." Garcia inquired.

"I did, but Strauss's son is sick, so we had to postpone them. I am getting caught up on paperwork. What's up?" He asked.

"So I want you to know that I am coming to you not as the technical genius of the team, who has the utmost respect for you, but as the woman who watches over and loves your daughter as much as you do." Garcia said, nervously.

"Okay…" Hotch was confused.

Garcia took a deep breath, "Are you a moron? Seriously, are you a giant idiot?"

"Penelope-"Hotch tried to interrupt her.

"No! I am just wondering what in the hell is wrong with you?" Garcia was on a tirade. "Your daughter is in a car accident, probably scared out of her mind at what has happened to her and her friends and you come into the ER, take some dumb intern's word about the drunken state of her friend as gospel and then proceed to take her home and scream at her? Not only that, but you bring up her dead mother while shouting at her? You don't let her tell you her side, which is enlightening by the way, and you put her on some stupid "total lockdown" punishment? Have you lost your mind?" Garcia was shouting by this point.

Hotch had never seen his technical analyst this worked up before. "Let me guess, you've found information which shows I may have overreacted with Jane?" Hotch dreaded the answer.

"You think? First off, I hacked into George Washington hospital's records, and guess what I found? I found that the driver of the car, James Underwood, had a blood alcohol level of zero. He hadn't been drinking." Garcia said.

"Oh, shit." Hotch was starting to realize that he had screwed up.

"Yeah, but his tox screen he showed levels of rohypnol, which is-"

"A date rape drug" Hotch interrupted, not liking the direction of this conversation.

"Exactly" Garcia continued, "I hacked into the records of GW ER and other ER's near where the party took place that night and it seems that there was an abnormal amount of kids aged 15-18 with rohypnol in their systems. The theory among Jane's friends on facebook is that someone spiked the punch, and if James had some punch and then they left right away, he wouldn't have shown any symptoms beforehand-"

"Because it would have hit him while he was driving." Hotch finished for her. "So he wasn't drunk and Jane did nothing wrong. Shit, I've really fucked this up haven't I?" Hotch asked, his anger at his daughter now replaced with remorse.

"Yes. Yes you have. You didn't listen to her side of it, you accused her of something that we both know she would never do, you shouted and swore at her, you brought up her mother-"

"Ok," Hotch interrupted, "but in my defense, I had just been awakened with the news that every parent of a teenager dreads. They woke me to tell me my kid had just been in a car accident." Hotch tried to defend himself.

"You scared her, Hotch." Garcia said softly with tears in her voice. "She's been too scared to talk to you. What if new injuries have cropped up, or the cut on her cheek has become infected? She may be hiding it from you."

He looked defeated. "God, I really am the asshole of the year aren't I?" Hotch couldn't believe how badly he had fucked things up between him and his daughter. "You talked to her today…is she still scared of me?"

Garcia grinned, "Maybe a little, but it seems most of her fear has turned into anger. She is good and pissed off at you. You'll be happy to know that you have made it to number one on her list of jackasses on facebook and you are the star of her brand new blog, titled 'Tales from Total Lockdown.' The only reason she hasn't said anything to you is because she doesn't want to get punished further."

"She has a blog?" Hotch was surprised at this because he monitored Jane's internet usage pretty carefully. He knew the type of online sickos that were just waiting to prey on his daughter.

"It's pretty new, she started it this weekend during her two hours of online time. I forwarded the link to your email so you know what you are facing when you get home, but please don't use the blog against her, she was using it as an outlet for her frustration." Garcia paused. "She would also probably need to put her next two weeks worth of allowance from you into the swear jar." Garcia smiled. Hotch gave Jane fifteen dollars per week for gas and spending money.

"I swear that I'll read it for informational purposes only" Hotch promised. "Thanks Penelope. Not just for this, but for loving her and watching out for her like you do."

"No problem, Bossman" Garcia said, leaving Hotch's office.

Hotch went into his email and pulled up the link to Jane's blog. Wow. He wondered what it said about him that he was a little impressed that his daughter could rant and swear as creatively as she did about him. She was _really _pissed, and Hotch realized that she had every right to be.

He shut down his computer, dropped four dollars into the swear jar in the hallway and made his way to Rossi's office to let him know he was leaving early. He knew he needed to go home and make things right with his daughter.

**********

_There will be one more story in this arc. FYI, I am not sure how long it would take for rohypnol to take effect, so I might be way off on that part. Reviews are always welcomed!_


	6. Chapter 6: Making Up Is Hard To Do

Disclaimer: Criminal Minds is owned by CBS. I own nothing but my imagination.

A Different Kind of Life-Chapter 6

Making Up Is Hard To Do

_**This is a continuation from chapters 4-5. Jane is 16 years old in this chapter**_

Jane was surprised to see her father sitting on the sofa when she walked through the front door that afternoon, it was rare that he was home before 600pm. 'You've got to be kidding me,' she thought. 'Now he's coming home to check up on me? Calling at 400pm wasn't enough?'

She tried leaving the room without saying anything, but as she was halfway to the steps, her father spoke up. "We need to talk, Jane."

'That's odd,' Jane thought, 'he doesn't sound angry.' Hotch may not have been mad anymore, but Jane still was and she didn't want to have a conversation with him right now.

"Look dad," she started, "can this conversation wait? I want to get a jump on my algebra homework while it is still fresh in my head and I want to finish a writing assignment before my two hours of internet starts. Plus, I know you're mad at me and you hate me, but I'm mad at you too and I'm afraid that if I talk to you right now, I will just get into more trouble."

Hotch sighed, "Fine Jane, it can wait. Any preferences for dinner tonight?"

"I'm not hungry and I have a lot of things to do when the internet is turned on, so I'm just going to skip dinner tonight." Jane said as she made her way up the stairs.

**********

Hotch stared at his daughter's back as she went up the stairs. 'That didn't go well' he thought. Normally he would not have let her get away with not talking to him, but it didn't take a profiler to know that she was still _really _mad at him. She was like him in that regard, the more quietly and calmly she spoke, the angrier she got until things boiled over and the shouting started.

He reflected on what she had said. The first thing he needed to do was dispel the notion that he hated her, it broke his heart that she would think he didn't love her. She was also dead wrong if she thought he was going to let her skip another meal, she was a growing girl and she needed to eat. He also realized that the only way for them to get past this was for him to let her yell and scream at him, just the way he had on Friday night. Generally he did not tolerate her shouting at him, no matter how angry she was, but these were special circumstances…he was the one who had made the mistake. He wasn't one of those parents who wanted to be best friends with their kid, but he wasn't a strict disciplinarian either. He had a line and Jane usually knew when she was coming up to it. Now he just needed a way to get her out of her bedroom that didn't involve him forcing her out.

The idea came to him at about 600pm. He got up, grabbed his keys, left a note for Jane and headed out into the night.

**********

Jane was in her room finishing her writing assignment when she first smelled it. 'Hamburgers' she thought. 'Wait, that smells like hamburgers from Five Guys.' Five Guys had the best burgers in the DC area and it was her and her father's favorite place to eat. There wasn't one near them, so unless they were in the city, they didn't usually have it as takeout. 'He must be really desperate to talk to me if he is trying to lure me downstairs with food from Five Guys' Jane thought, since it was a half hour drive to the nearest one. 'Well, it's not going to work.' She decided stubbornly.

Over the next fifteen minutes, her mind battled with her stomach…she was really hungry, and she really hadn't had a decent meal since before this whole thing started. In the end her hunger won out and she started down the stairs. As she got about two steps down, she heard her dad's cell phone ring and he went into his study to take the call. 'Perfect' she thought, 'I'll grab my food and take it upstairs before he gets back to the kitchen.' She quietly ran into the kitchen, grabbed her burger and her share of the fries out of the bag and turned to leave the kitchen.

"Freeze" Hotch's order stopped her in her tracks. "I let you eat breakfast in your room this weekend because it was just granola bars, but you're crazy if you think I'm letting you take your dinner up there."

'Damn!' Jane thought, 'I was _so_ close!' She walked over to the table with her food and sat down. Hotch brought her a glass of milk and also sat down, they were both in the same places they were during their argument on Friday night. Jane looked at him, waiting for him to talk.

"Jane, we have a lot to discuss, but first we eat, then we talk." Hotch said as he took a bite of his burger.

Jane started to eat her supper too, but she set her burger down about halfway through it. The strained silence was still there and her stomach was churning with anger and apprehension over the coming conversation with her father. She watched as Hotch ate his dinner.

When Hotch finished, he took his plate and hers over to the sink. He washed his own, took Jane's food off of hers and wrapped it up and put it in the fridge. He then washed her plate and walked back towards the table. He went past the table and over to the swear jar. Jane watched as he again opened his wallet, pulled out a ten dollar bill and put it in the swear jar.

"What did I do now?!" Jane wailed. "I've stuck to your rules! I've been home by 400pm, I haven't watched TV, and I haven't talked to anyone on the phone outside of you and Penelope. I've been a model prisoner!" She couldn't believe she was in more trouble!

"You haven't done anything wrong," Hotch said, sitting back down at the table. "Those ten dollars are for you. I know you're angry with me and I know that I stood here like a lunatic screaming at you on Friday night, so I figured it's only fair that you get the chance to yell back at me." Hotch paused so she could start, but she just sat there quietly. "Come on Jane, I know you're pissed at me and I also know that you didn't do anything wrong Friday night. You have immunity for anything you say to me in the next ten minutes. Do you really want a once in a lifetime chance like this to get away from you?"

Jane stared at him for another minute, then all of the frustration and anger that had been building in her over the past three days came bubbling to the surface.

"You're damn right I'm pissed at you!" Jane began. "You stood there and screamed at me like a madman, not letting me say anything, not letting me defend myself, I had to just sit here and take it. You believed some dumbass doctor, who looked like he had barely graduated from medical school, over me when I have never done anything to violate your trust! You didn't check in to what actually happened at that party, you just assumed the worst. I had to ride home wondering if _you_ were going to put us into a tree, my cheek throbbing like a bitch the whole way and then I had to listen as you pretty much called me irresponsible and untrustworthy." Jane paused to breathe, so angry that she was actually shaking.

"Jane-"Hotch tried to say something. He had never seen his daughter like this.

"No! I still have eight minutes and six swears left!" Jane continued, getting up to walk around the room as she yelled. "You then have the nerve to bring up my dead mother and pretty much tell me she would be ashamed of me. Mom never would have yelled at me like that! She never would have let _you _yell at me like that! You scared the hell out of me with your yelling and I wondered if you might actually hit me." Hotch felt his heart constrict at that one. "You ruined one of my only weekends without homework, homework I got done during the week by pulling all-nighters because I had planned to spend it with you for a father/daughter weekend. Instead I barely got any sleep because of the anger and tension around here and I was stuck here. Do you know that I actually looked forward to going to school on Monday, if only because it got me away from you?"

"Sweetie-"Hotch tried again to speak, thinking she was finished.

"Again, not done! Don't you listen? What kind of profiler are you when you can't tell when your own daughter is done talking?" Ouch, Hotch thought, that one was personal.

"I did nothing wrong Friday night, NOTHING! I've listened to you over the years when you've told me about going with a drunk driver and I listened to Garcia and mom. Do you really think I would disrespect mom's memory like that where I would ride with a drunk driver? Do you think I am a fucking moron?!" She wondered if she went too far with that one, but she continued. "The only reason I wasn't affected was because I didn't have any punch, and I didn't have any punch because you've always told me to get my own drinks and to make sure they come from an unopened can or bottle. I did that! I did everything right, and I still got crapped on." She stopped talking and sat back down at the table, glaring at him.

It was quiet for a minute, then Hotch hesitantly asked her if she was done.

"For now" she said, "according to my watch, I still have five minutes of immunity left and I reserve the right to use them if needed."

Hotch fought down a smile, she really needed to go to law school.

"Ok, I need to address some important issues. First, earlier today you said that 'you know I hate you.' I could _never _hate you! There is absolutely nothing you could ever do that would make me stop loving you and if you leave this room tonight knowing only one thing, it has to be that." He saw her eyes fill with tears. "Second, I would never hit you, no matter how angry I am at you. That is why I never spanked you when you were younger. I grew up in a house filled with violence and fear, and I never want you to feel that." Her eyes got wide at his revelation. She always knew that her father's childhood hadn't been pretty, her mother alluded to it once or twice, but she didn't know that he had been abused.

"Dad-" Jane started, but Hotch stopped her.

"Nope, it's my turn now." He said to her, smiling slightly so she wouldn't think he was angry with her. "I over reacted, plain and simple. I had a bad week and that being paired with the phone call from the hospital made me freak out and lose my temper and for that, I apologize. I should have checked into it further and not just taken the doctor's word for it, I was an idiot and a bully. I know you're a good kid and I trust you and I know that you've listened to me, mom and Garcia over the years." Hotch paused. "I never should have brought mom up. That was…well it was just wrong. Your mom would be proud of the person you've turned into, just like I am."

Jane had tears pouring down her cheeks. She felt so much better now that she knew her dad loved her and the tension had been lifted. "I'm sorry too. I've been acting like a brat the last few days, and I shouldn't have used all of the hot water on Monday."

Hotch came over to her and hugged her. "Needless to say, you're off of 'total lockdown.'" He released her. "Give me your cell phone." She handed it over and watched as he punched in another code and then sat back down. "Your phone is unlocked, the WI-FI router is back on, and your car keys are hanging on the hook near the door." He smiled as she looked relaxed for the first time since Friday. "Needless to say, I owe you big time for this screw-up. Any ideas on that?"

Jane looked hopeful. "Well my laptop is out of date and slow…maybe I could get a new one?"

"Jane, your laptop is two years old, its fine. I was thinking more along the lines of a father/daughter weekend this upcoming weekend?" Hotch suggested.

"Yeah, but weren't we going to do that anyway this past weekend? Kind of a lame payback if you ask me." She grinned.

"Ok, the father/daughter weekend is back on, but not as payback. What else did you have in mind?"

"Well…" Jane was nervous again and she started speaking fast. "The homecoming dance is in two weeks and Andy asked me to go with him. He would pick me up and drive me home and it would just be the two of us, not a group date and I really, really, _really_ want to go." She stopped as she saw her father staring at her.

Hotch continued looking at her and then dropped his head to his hand. "God Jane…" She had totally blindsided him. He looked back up at her, "Can we revisit the laptop issue?" He asked, weakly.

"No way, uh-uh. You just said that you trust me, so either you do or you don't. Which one is it going to be?" Jane challenged him.

"It's not you that I don't trust." Hotch mumbled. "Do I know Andy? Do I know his parents?"

"You've met Andy before, he's been over here before to study along with everyone else." During mid-terms and finals, most of Jane's friends came over to study in groups. Both Hotch and Garcia liked Jane having her friends over to study because they could monitor them and make sure that studying actually got done. "And Garcia has met his parents when they've picked him up from here. Can I go? Please, please, _please_?"

Hotch stared at her for a minute. "Ok, you can go-" Jane gave a squeal of happiness, "on one condition. I want to meet and talk with him when he picks you up for the dance."

"Sure, fine, no problem" Jane would have agreed to anything at that point.

"And you'll be home by 1100pm." Hotch added.

"Dad! The dance isn't even over until 1100pm. How about 100am?" Jane tried.

"Are you insane? 1130pm." Hotch counter-offered.

"But what if we want to get ice cream or something after the dance? How about midnight?"

Hotch thought about it for a second. "Ok, midnight it is."

Jane leapt up from her seat. "Thanks dad, I love you!" she said as she hugged him and kissed his cheek. She then ran out of the room, picking up her phone to call Andy and the rest of her friends.

"I love you too, Jane." Hotch said softly. He then made a mental note to have Garcia do a full background check on Andy and his parents.

**********

_That's the end of this arc, I hope you've enjoyed it. I want to try a couple of more humorous chapters before another serious arc. I'm not sure yet, but maybe we'll see the self-defense lessons between Jane and Derek, or maybe we'll have Hotch have to deal with some "girl stuff" happening to Jane. _

_Five Guys is a real restaurant and if you live in the DC area (or anywhere else that has one…they are popping up all over), I suggest you try their burgers, they are to die for!_

_Again, reviews are always appreciated._


	7. Chapter 7: Melting The Ice Queen's Heart

Disclaimer: Criminal Minds is owned by CBS. I own nothing but my imagination.

A Different Kind of Life-Chapter 7

Melting the Ice Queen's Heart

_**Jane is 12 years old in this chapter**_

"Hotch, you gotta come in here and see this, it's the damndest thing."

"Dave, why are you calling me from your office phone when both of our doors are open? You could have just come in here or even yelled to me." Hotch was confused, which was understandable since he hadn't looked up from his paperwork for two hours straight.

"No, it'll ruin it…would you just get your ass in here? You've got to see this to believe it." Dave was insistent.

Hotch was afraid of what he was going to see, but nonetheless decided that he needed a break and made his way over to Dave's office. When he got there, he saw that his entire team including Gideon was there and they were all staring out across the bullpen.

Gideon was back working for the FBI as a BAU Consultant. He didn't want to return full-time, but he missed profiling so he sometimes consulted on some of their tougher cases. He was there now because Haley had died two weeks ago and he had been filling in for Hotch. This was Hotch's first day back.

"What exactly am I looking at Dave?" Hotch asked, looking around.

"Not in here, out there." Dave pointed out his door, across the bullpen to the conference room.

'Shit.' Hotch thought, 'I hope Jane hasn't caused a problem.' Today was also Jane's first day back at school since Haley died and Hotch had nowhere for her to go after school. Jane had argued that she was old enough to stay home alone after school, but Hotch wouldn't hear of it. He had seen way too many things happen to young kids who spent a lot of time by themselves, but he didn't have a plan of what to do with her after school, so he had cleared the conference room of any case files and pictures and he had put her in there so she could work on her homework.

"Aw, hell, is that Strauss in there with her? That's just what I need today." Hotch couldn't believe his bad luck, the one time he brings Jane in to the office and he gets busted.

"It is, but _look _at them, Hotch." Dave said, growing a little impatient.

Hotch looked and was surprised by what he saw. It looked like Strauss and Jane were talking and both of them started laughing. It looked like they were both having a good time.

"Who knew that the Ice Queen was capable of laughter?" JJ asked. "I thought a smile would crack through her mask and some lizard creature would come through, kinda like that 80's movie, _V_."

Spencer snorted, that was one of his all-time favorite movies, but he was too entranced with what was happening between Jane and Strauss to go into details about the inaccuracies of it.

"It's like watching _Meerkat Manor_ on Animal Planet. They look so cute and cuddly, but you know that at any moment she could turn on Jane and literally rip her head off." Reid said, not taking his eyes off of the conference room.

"I feel like we're watching pure good meet ultimate evil." Garcia said. "Isn't this one of the signs of the apocalypse?"

"If it isn't, it should be." Gideon said.

They were all still mesmerized by what was happening in the conference room. They watched as Jane laughed and accidently spilled her cup of water.

"Careful Jane," Emily said. "If she gets water on her, she'll melt."

That was met by laughter from all of them. "Who knew that little Hotch would be able to melt the Ice Queen's heart?" Derek asked, using his nickname for Jane.

"Sorry to ruin everyone's fun, but I should get in there to see how pissed Strauss is at me." Hotch said, moving towards the doorway.

"If she gives you any trouble, let us know…hell you won't have to let us know, we'll be watching from here." Ever since Haley got sick and then died the whole team, especially Dave and Jason, had grown protective of Hotch. They knew the stress he was under at home and they tried to alleviate as much of it from his job as possible.

Hotch made his way to the conference room and opened the door.

"Everything Ok in he-oh, Agent Strauss, I didn't know you needed this room." Aaron pretended that he didn't know she was in the conference room.

"I don't, Agent Hotchner, I was just passing by the room and I saw this young lady in here doing her homework and I thought I would see if she needed any help." Strauss responded, smiling at Jane.

"Well…thank you." Hotch said, somewhat confused by his boss's niceness towards his daughter. "Jane, why don't you go down to the bullpen and see everyone? Emily just made a fresh bag of popcorn, and I'll be down in a few minutes, Ok?

"Sure dad. It was nice to meet you Ms. Strauss. Thanks for the help with my math homework."

"It was my pleasure…and Jane? You're not one of my agents, so please call me Erin." Strauss said to her.

"Ok, thanks Erin." The rest of the team had moved to the bullpen to eavesdrop and they couldn't believe that Strauss was getting along so well with Jane.

Strauss turned back to Hotch. Before she could say anything, Hotch started speaking. "I'm sorry for bringing her here ma'am, I know it's against regulations, but with everything that has happened in the last few weeks I didn't think of what to do with Jane after school. This will not become a habit."

Strauss looked at him with compassion, "Agent Hotchner, I know you've been dealing with a lot over the last few weeks…actually months now, and you've done an admirable job holding everything together. Your daughter is delightful and if you need to bring her here, please feel free to do so." Hotch just stared at Strauss as she continued, "You might not know this, but my youngest child left home for college last month, so I am adjusting to being an empty nester. I know that you have Agent Garcia lined up to take care of Jane when you are called out of town, but I hope you will consider leaving her with me when there are cases where you need Agent Garcia along with you."

Hotch was shocked. "Um, I will ma'am. Thank you." This was actually a large relief to Hotch as he had wondered what he would do with Jane in cases like that. Haley's parents were both dead and she had been an only child and Hotch's only brother lived in New York, his mother was in a nursing home and he didn't speak to his father unless it was absolutely necessary, so there was no blood family that he could rely on to look after Jane.

"That being said, the conference room at the BAU headquarters is probably not the ideal environment for a twelve year old. I have a friend that runs…well I suppose you could call it a daycare, but it's for girls ages ten to fourteen. They can work on their homework, use the computer and be in a safe environment. It's near here, so you won't have to drive far to pick Jane up and her rates are reasonable. I will forward you her information." Strauss finished.

"Thank you ma'am, really, this solves a lot of my problems." Hotch said in a daze.

"No problem, Agent Hotchner." Strauss said as she started back to her office.

**********

Dave and Gideon were entertaining Jane and the team with stories of her father when he was a young agent and she was laughing hard at them. Hotch was glad to see her laughing, it had been awhile since either one of them had laughed.

Dave saw him approaching. "How did it go up there? It looks like you still have all of your body parts."

"She..she offered to help watch Jane when Garcia can't and she may have solved Jane's after school problem." Hotch said this, still mildly stunned.

His team just stared at him. Jane finally broke the silence. "She's nice dad, I wouldn't mind staying with her when Penelope has to go out of town with you."

The whole team was still struck speechless. Nice was not a word usually associated with Erin Strauss.

Gideon finally broke the silence. "Well, I'm glad you're back Hotch, because I need to leave. This whole exchange is making me doubt my sanity again."

**********

_I'm not sure how much I like this chapter. We always see Strauss as an evil manipulator so I thought it would be fun to have someone like her (and vice versa). I have a couple more one-shot chapters coming up and then I have an idea for a large story arc (at least 5 chapters). I am debating making the story arc a separate story (an offshoot from this AU) but I know there are some stories that I've read where the separate stories kind of confuse me. What do you think? _

_Again, reviews are always appreciated!_


	8. Chapter 8: A Walk Down Memory Lane

**Author's Note: Thanks to Tracia for letting me borrow her prompt!**

Disclaimer: Criminal Minds is owned by CBS. I own nothing but my imagination.

A Different Kind of Life-Chapter 8

A Walk Down Memory Lane

_**Jane is 20 years old in this chapter**_

"Arrghh!" Hotch overheard his daughter exclaim to Garcia. "Someone seriously needs to explain to me why, as a pre-med student, I need to take a creative writing class?! It's not like I'm ever going to need it. What am I going to do, chart someone's medical history in creative prose?" Hotch snorted quietly from outside of Garcia's office; his car was in the shop and Jane was picking him up from work today. He had heard she was in the building, and when he didn't see her in Strauss's office, Dave's office or in the bullpen, he knew to look for her in Garcia's lair. He knew he shouldn't eavesdrop on their conversation, but overhearing Jane and Penelope talk sometimes gave him new insights into his daughter, so he remained in the hallway.

"Sweetie, have you seen the dried up, uninspired husks some of these doctors turn into? Hopefully this class will keep you from becoming one. Also, it's college; they arbitrarily decide what you need to take in order to fulfill your degree." Garcia said, somewhat amused by Jane's ranting. Hotch agreed with Garcia's assessment of colleges. Why did he have to take two semesters of science for a pre-law degree?

"What's the assignment?" Garcia asked.

"We have to write about the three most memorable kisses we've received in our lives." Jane responded. "I mean, come on! Our most memorable kisses? What does that even mean? Does that mean our steamiest kisses, because if that's the case, I have WAY more than three." Hotch died a little in the hallway, he preferred to think of his daughter as being just this side of a nun.

"My guess is that the professor wants you to write about the three kisses that have had the most impact on your life." Garcia guessed.

"Yeah, I suppose." Jane grumbled. "What kisses would you write about?"

"Oh Sweets, you are MUCH too young to hear about my three most memorable kisses." Garcia said, laughing.

"You do realize that I am twenty years old? I think I can handle it." Jane was crabby because not only did she have this stupid assignment, but Penelope was also treating her like a child.

Garcia was amused. "You might be twenty Jane, but I still see you as a twelve year old kid and I am not about to share my three best kisses with a twelve year old. Sorry! Now how about you tell me how it's going with that hunky boyfriend of yours."

"You won't tell me about your kisses, but you expect to hear all about a 'twelve year olds' love life? How is that fair?"

"Life isn't always fair honey, and I don't want to hear about your love life, I want to hear about your sex life. I have to live vicariously through you."

Hotch chose that moment to clear his throat and enter Garcia's lair. He didn't want to hear anything that he couldn't unhear and if he heard that his daughter even had a sex life, he would lose it. Garcia might see his daughter as a twelve year old, but in his mind she was still six years old.

"I heard you were in the building, thanks for picking me up." Hotch said. "I hope I'm not interrupting anything."

"Jane and I were just about to talk about her-"

"Writing assignment." Jane interrupted, giving Garcia a look. "We were talking about a writing assignment. Are you ready to head out?" Jane asked her dad, changing the subject. "We need to hit the frozen foods section of the grocery store on the way home, since it's your turn to cook." She teased him.

Jane was living at home while going to school at Georgetown University. She tried living on campus her first year, but it was cheaper and quieter for her to live at home. Before she moved back home, her and her father had talked and Hotch had promised to try to loosen up his protective streak… try being the operative word. All in all it was going well for both of them, Hotch didn't have an empty house to come home to and Jane had many more creature comforts than she would have had in the dorms. Plus, since her dad was out of town so much, she had a lot of freedom. Her dates still faced an inquisition when they came to pick her up, but Jane was working on that with him.

As they made their way to the parking lot, Jane tossed her keys to her dad. "Do you mind driving?" She asked. "I want to think about this writing assignment and I don't want to be distracted behind the wheel."

"No problem." Being the control freak that he was, Hotch preferred being the driver.

Jane was quiet on the ride to the grocery store and on the ride home. As soon as they got home, she went to her room to work on the assignment while Hotch heated up the frozen lasagna and garlic bread. When he called her down for dinner an hour later, she seemed more relaxed.

"You seem less stressed." he said as he set a plate of food down in front of her and then sat down with his own plate. "Is the writer's block gone?"

"Yeah." Jane said through a mouthful of food, "I know what I'm going to write about, which was a big hurdle. Now I just need to do the actual writing."

Hotch was a little sad that he was able to understand her through her mouthful of lasagna. "Christ Jane, do you think it would be possible for you to chew and swallow your food before you speak?"

Jane just looked at him and then looked at the swear jar. He got up and put a dollar in it, mumbling "I didn't know that 'Christ' was a swear word." He sat back down. "So what three kisses are you going to write about? Or is that too private?"

Jane just stared at him. "How do you know what the writing assignment is about? I didn't tell you, all I said was that it was a writing assignment. Were you eavesdropping outside of Penelope's office?"

Shit, he was busted! And if Jane told Garcia about it, he would have to face her wrath as well. "I can't help that Garcia has one volume for her voice: extra loud. I could hear her all the way down the hallway."

Jane eyed her father suspiciously and then decided that he had a point, Pen was a loud talker. She looked thoughtful for a minute. "No, it's not too private. I'm going to share them with my class, so I might as well share them with you." She took another bite of food, chewed and swallowed for her father's benefit before speaking again. "The first kiss is the one I got from Andy, right after homecoming when he dropped me off. It wasn't my first kiss, but it was my first serious kiss. You probably remember it since you caught us right in the middle of it."

Jane thought back to that kiss. It was her first real date. She had been on other dates before, but they had always been group dates. This time, she had guilted her father into letting her go on a couple's date for homecoming and it had been great. Garcia had taken her out shopping and they had found the perfect dress and her dad hadn't terrorized Andy too much when he picked her up. They went out for a nice dinner and they had a lot of fun at the dance. At 1155pm, Andy walked her up to the door and gave her a light kiss. The light kiss turned into a much deeper and sensual kiss, and they were barely aware of the fact that Hotch had opened the front door. They broke apart when they heard Hotch's voice rumble that it was time for Jane to come in the house. At first Jane was afraid that he was going to draw his weapon and flat out kill Andy, but he had been OK that night. It was the next day at breakfast, that he sat her down for a long, in-depth discussion about sex and about going too far before she was ready. She thought they both would die of embarrassment but they got through it. She had to give him credit, most single dads of daughters would have let someone else take care of that talk but he jumped right in.

"How could I forget?" Hotch asked. "Here I thought you were going to the dance with a friend and I opened the door to find both of you groping each other. Not my best memory."

Jane grinned at her father and then got serious. "My second memorable kiss came from mom. It was the night both of you sat me down to tell me she was sick. I remember feeling like my world was crashing down on me, wondering if mom was going to die. I was crying and mom put her arms around me, gave me a kiss and told me that she was going to beat the disease. I remember thinking to myself, 'What if mom dies? This could be the last kiss I get from her.'" As it was, I wasn't too far from the truth with that thought. Mom died three months after that?"

"Four." Hotch replied. They were both silent for a minute. It had been eight years since Haley died, but sometimes it still seemed like it had just happened.

Jane took another bite of food and continued. "My third-" she was interrupted by a glare from her dad. She stopped talking, chewed and swallowed and then began again. "My third most memorable kiss came from you."

"Me?" Hotch asked, surprised.

"Yup. Do you remember when I was kidnapped?" She asked.

"Vaguely." Hotch replied, sarcastically. Like he could ever forget. When Jane was seventeen, a paroled unsub that Hotch helped put behind bars came looking for revenge. He kidnapped and beat Jane for four days. They were the worst four days of his life.

"When you and the team found me, I remember lying there half conscious wondering if anything would ever be ok again. Then I felt you kiss my forehead. You didn't lie to me and tell me everything would be alright, you just silently kissed my forehead. At that moment I felt _safe_, like nothing else could hurt me because they would have to get past you. Throughout my physical and psychological recovery I clung to that feeling of safety."

"I had no idea." Hotch said, his throat tight.

"Yeah, well…it's not something I talk about much." Jane said.

Hotch got up and started clearing the table. "I'm going to go work in my study for a little while-"

"Oh no. Oh _hell_ no." Jane said, "You heard about my three kisses, what are yours?"

"Mine really aren't all that interesting…" He said, jerking his head towards the swear jar. Hearing about her assignment, he had been thinking back to all of his kisses throughout the evening.

"I don't care, let's hear 'em." Jane said, as she counted out a dollar in change to put in the jar.

"Fine. Going in order of age, my first memorable kiss was from my first girlfriend." This was going to be harder than he thought, but he didn't want to lie to her. "I was fourteen years old and my father had just gotten done using me as a punching bag. I could have taken him at that point, but I knew that if he didn't hit me he would move on to Sean or my mother, so I took the beating. Afterward I snuck out of my window and went to Shari's house. I knocked on her bedroom window and she let me in and she cleaned up my cuts. After that, she kissed all of my bruises and told me that she loved me. I remember thinking that it was nice knowing that at least one person loved me, because I wasn't feeling any love at home."

Jane knew that her dad had been abused as a kid. He had talked about it once or twice in his life, but never like this. Jane felt bad for him.

"Dad, if you don't want to-"

"It's OK, thankfully my next two kisses are memorable in a good way." Hotch smiled at her and continued. "My next most memorable kiss is easy, it was when I kissed your mother at our wedding ceremony. I remember thinking that I had never seen anyone more beautiful in my life, and I couldn't wait to start my life with her. Unlike you and your friends, your mother and I did not live together before getting married." Hotch said this while giving her a pointed look.

"One time, _one time_! It was one time that I considered moving in with a guy and that was more to save on rent than anything else and I didn't even end up moving in with him! Are you ever going to let that go?" Jane asked, exasperated.

"Probably not." Hotch replied, "but that is a whole different discussion."

"No kidding." Jane muttered under her breath.

"Anyway," Hotch said, pretending he hadn't heard her, "my third most memorable kiss happened on the day you were born."

"Really?" Jane asked, smiling.

"Yup, it was two or three hours after you were born. Your mother was asleep and I was in her room holding you. You and I were having a discussion about all of my hopes and dreams for you. You were falling asleep, so I laid you in your bassinette and I bent down to give you a kiss. You had that new baby smell and I remembered thinking as I kissed you that my life was finally perfect."

"Awww." Jane said, tearing up. "That's so sweet."

Hotch got up from the table. "Now I really do need to get some work done, and I know you couldn't have possibly finished your writing assignment yet, so I'm guessing you have some work to do as well."

"You're right." Jane said, getting up from the table. "I'm setting the DVR for Glee tonight; want to watch it with me later?"

"Of course, but so help me god Jane, if you ever tell anyone that I watch that show…"

"Don't worry; your secret is safe with me." Jane responded, grinning. She wanted to get her writing done…suddenly the assignment didn't seem that hard anymore.


	9. Chapter 9: The Calm Before The Storm

Disclaimer: Criminal Minds is owned by CBS. I own nothing but my imagination.

A Different Kind of Life-Chapter 9

The Calm Before The Storm

_**Jane is 22 years old in this chapter**_

"Why don't you and the team come back to the house for dinner tonight?" Jane asked her father as she balanced her phone between her ear and shoulder and battled with balancing her books and coffee in her arms as she tried to open her car door. Jane was in her final semester at Georgetown University and was trying to finish up her regular coursework, an internship and her undergraduate thesis all at the same time. She was unbelievably busy, but the weekend was coming up and she was looking forward to getting a lot of her work done then. As much as she loved them, she didn't really want to have the entire team over for dinner but she knew they were coming off of a bad case in Kentucky and she thought they could all use a home cooked meal.

Hotch thought about it for a minute and then, as if reading her mind said, "Honey, I'm sure you have a lot of things to do tonight. Don't worry about us; we'll grab something when we get back to Quantico."

"Don't be silly." Jane said, "You've all been eating out for the last week and a half and that can't be good for you. I can pick up the fixings for beef stew and have it ready by the time you all get back." She could hear Hotch try to interrupt, but she wouldn't let him. "Seriously, set your cell phone down and ask everyone if they would like to come over tonight. I'll wait." She listened as she heard her father ask the team about dinner and she heard a resounding "Yes!" come from everyone. She was grinning as her father came back to the phone.

"Ok, you win; everyone here REALLY wants a home cooked meal. Garcia inquired about the possibility of mashed potatoes?"

"Tell Pen that I wouldn't make it any other way." Jane was also a fan of mashed potatoes.

"Great, we'll be landing in Quantico in about two hours and then we have some paperwork to finish up, so we should all be there at around seven-thirty. Does that work for you?" Hotch asked her as he reviewed some case files.

Jane mentally planned as her father was speaking, it would give her enough time to run to the grocery store and clean the house. "Seven-thirty is fine, I will see you all then. Have a safe rest of the flight."

**********

*Ding-dong*

Jane looked at the clock and it read 705pm, they were early! She still had to clean up the living room, which currently looked like a disaster zone. Jane and Aaron normally kept the house clean, but when her dad was away on cases Jane had a tendency to let the housework go and then frantically clean up right before he got home.

"Just a minute!" She called out as she grabbed armfuls of stuff, preparing to run to her bedroom and shove it all under her bed.

"It's just me, Sweets. " Thank god, it was only Penelope! Jane opened the door to find the blonde woman holding two bottles of wine. Garcia saw all of the items in Jane's arms and laughed.

"Still waiting until the last minute to clean up I see" Garcia said this as she made her way into the kitchen to pour herself a glass of wine.

"You know me too well" Jane said while cleaning in the living room. It was true, outside of her father, Garcia was the person who knew Jane the best.

"You should just leave it messy, it's who you are." Garcia said, coming back into the room with a large glass of wine.

"I'm sorry, have you met my father? The tidiest man in America?" Jane asked while quickly cleaning.

She was chatting with Garcia and dusting when the doorbell rang again. Emily and JJ burst in, JJ carrying ice cream and Emily carrying a large cake in a bakery box.

"You got the place cleaned in time, I'm impressed." Emily said, making her way to the kitchen to set down the cake box and put the ice cream in the freezer.

"God, is there anyone who doesn't know that I am secretly a messy person?" Jane asked as Emily returned from the kitchen holding wine glasses.

JJ took a glass from Emily and poured herself some wine. "One thing I've learned while working with a bunch of profilers is there is no such thing as secrets. Want a glass of wine?" She asked Jane.

"No thanks, I took some headache medicine earlier today and the alcohol will react badly with it." Jane explained as she poured herself some Pepsi. She started getting migraines in high school and they showed no sign of letting up. "Plus I'm going to be pulling an all nighter tonight so I don't really need the alcohol to make me sleepy."

"From the looks of it, I would say you don't need _anything_ to make you sleepy. You look exhausted." Emily said, making herself comfortable on the sofa.

"Yeah Jane, you should really try to get more sleep." JJ agreed, sitting down next to Emily.

"You don't want to make yourself sick, Sweetie." Garcia said as she flipped through a magazine that Jane had left out.

Jane was incredulous. "Oh my god, would you listen to yourselves? You are some of the most sleep deprived people on the planet and you're telling _me _to get more sleep. Glass houses, guys."

Garcia opened her mouth to respond, but thankfully for Jane the doorbell interrupted her.

Jane opened the door to find Dave standing on the porch.

"Dave!" Jane exclaimed, giving him a hug. Like Garcia, Jane was also especially close to Dave. Garcia was able to help her with her with stuff she would have gone to her mother with, while Dave was more like a trusted uncle. Over the years, Jane had gone to Dave with worries about her father working too hard and Dave had pretty much taken care of her and her father after her father was shot some years back. While he had the same protective streak as her father, he was good to have when she wanted a different male's perspective on things.

The one thing Jane learned that she could never go to him about was if she was boy troubles. During her freshman year of college, a guy was giving her grief, just some minor harassment and she went to Dave for advice on how to handle it (she figured her father would just kill the guy). Dave didn't like anyone messing with his goddaughter so he told her that he would handle it. Dave then went to her godmother, Garcia, and the two of them went to work. The result was that Dave and Derek paid the guy a visit and "convinced" him to leave her alone, and he was now on about a dozen government watch lists, including the no-fly list. Dave and Penelope were fiercely protective of Jane. Nobody fucks with their goddaughter.

"How's the future doctor?" Dave asked, as he came into the living room. Jane had been accepted at Georgetown University's medical school and was starting in the fall.

"Um, great…just stressed out." Jane said, not meeting his eyes.

Dave's radar immediately went into overdrive. It didn't take a profiler to see that something was up with her.

"Jane-" He started, but was interrupted by the doorbell.

"Little Hotch!" Derek exclaimed when Jane opened the door.

"Jesus Christ Derek, you realize I'm twenty-two years old now, right?" She said, cringing at his nickname for her.

"Sorry." Derek said with a grin. "I guess from now on I'll start calling you 'Doc'."

"Yeah, that would be great." Jane said, without much enthusiasm. Dave was not the only one who noticed Jane's discomfort this time, he saw Garcia frown at their exchange. Before he had time to question her Hotch showed up with Reid in tow and Jane and Reid started discussing some biological theory that Jane was writing her thesis about.

**********

Dinner was a lively event that night. Everyone raved about Jane's cooking skills and they all fell into easy conversations. It was nice for the team to share a meal while not working a case and it was nice for Jane to have her extended family all in the same place. After dinner the guys cleared away the plates while JJ and Emily started getting dessert ready. As Dave was heading out of the kitchen, Aaron was heading into the kitchen and they bumped into each other, causing Hotch to spill the food that was on the plate, onto his shirt.

"Shit!"

"Sorry Hotch." Dave replied. "Didn't see you coming."

"It's not a problem." Hotch said with a sigh. "I'm just going to go upstairs to change and then I'll throw this in the washing machine." Hotch headed upstairs. A few minutes later he called out, "Jane, do we have any oxyclean? I want to pre-treat my shirt so it doesn't stain."

"Sorry dad, it's in my bedroom. I used it before doing laundry yesterday. It should be on my dresser." Jane called back to him.

A few minutes later, Hotch returned to the table for dessert. He had a tight look on his face and he was not as easygoing with everyone, in fact he looked downright pissed off. As the night wore on, Jane could tell that she was the one he was mad at. He spoke nicely to everyone else, but when he responded to her, it was one word answers and she could tell by his tone that he was not happy with her. She had no idea what she did to make him angry, but she had a feeling she would find out soon enough. She wasn't wrong.

After dessert, everyone slowly began saying their good-byes. Derek had a date to get to, JJ had to get home to Will and Henry and Emily and Spencer were going to see the newest Star Trek movie. Finally it was just Hotch, Dave and Penelope. Jane was talking with Dave and Penelope in the living room when her father appeared in the doorway, holding some papers.

"Jane, why do you have an application for the FBI Academy?"

**********

_This is going to be at least a three part story arc. Reviews are always appreciated!_


	10. Chapter 10: Over My Dead Body

Disclaimer: Criminal Minds is owned by CBS. I own nothing but my imagination.

A Different Kind of Life-Chapter 10

Over My Dead Body

_**This is a continuation from chapter 9. Jane is 22 years old in this chapter**_

Jane paled as she looked at her father, she didn't want to have this conversation with him right now…hell, if she had her way she would never have this conversation with him. She was well aware of his feelings about her going into a dangerous line of work and she was willing to bet that her godparents shared those feelings.

"Dad, don't get all worked up ok? It's just-wait, how did you even find my application? Were you snooping?" Jane asked, trying to change the subject. Of course it didn't work.

"I saw it when I went into your bedroom to get the oxyclean for my shirt, and don't try to change the subject, why do you have the application?" He held up the sheaf of papers.

Jane looked nervously around the room when she realized that both Dave and Garcia were waiting for her answer as well.

"I'm just keeping my options open." She responded, waiting for their reactions. She didn't have to wait long. There were a few seconds of silence and then the explosion.

"Are you crazy?!" That was her father.

"What the hell?!" That was Dave.

"What is wrong with your brain?!" That was Penelope.

"Look guys, this is not a big deal-"Jane tried to calm them down…it didn't work

"It's not a big deal?" Her father asked, incredulously. "Trust me Jane; this is a very big deal. I do _not _want this kind of life for you. What about medical school? You've already been accepted; I thought it was decided!"

"It might be, I'm just-"

"No, there are no 'might be's.'" Penelope screeched. "I did not spend months helping you prep for the MCATS, on which you performed wonderfully, to have you throw your future away. The FBI is not an option for you. You want to keep your options open, fine. You also got into George Washington, University of Virginia, NYU and Penn State. Choose one of those medical schools."

Jane couldn't believe the way Pen was reacting! Penelope was always on her side, usually she helped her defend herself against her father and now she was on his side? Jane felt like her world had gone topsy-turvy.

"I don't think you guys understand-"She tried again and was interrupted again.

"No Jane, I don't think _you_ understand. I won't spend the rest of my life worrying about you, wondering if you're in danger, jumping every time the phone rings wondering if this is the call that will tell me you're hurt or, god forbid, dead!"

"You mean the way I've worried about you my whole life?" Jane said loudly. She was getting tired of being interrupted. "This is bullshit! This is my life and my decision and if I want to join the FBI, I will!" Jane yelled to all of them.

"Over my dead body!" Hotch shouted back at her and then took a deep breath. He had a card to play but he didn't want to use it, he knew it would be a low blow but he was desperate. "You realize your mother would be broken hearted if she was here today? She never would have wanted you to join the FBI."

"Don't you _dare_ use mom against me! Mom would want me to live my own life and make my own choices and be happy." Jane's voice was deadly quiet. "You have a hell of a lot of nerve to try and use mom's memory to guilt me into doing something that _you _want!" She said this last part much louder.

"You realize that you will have no free time as an FBI agent?" Dave asked her loudly.

"Yeah, and as a doctor I will be loaded with free time, Dave." Jane replied sarcastically.

"You'll always be working and you won't make much money." Penelope practically yelled at her.

"Again, as a doctor I'll always be working and during my residency I won't be making much money." Jane yelled right back at her and then took a deep breath to calm herself. "Look, I see you guys together as a team, I see how close you are and how loyal you are and I want something like that in my life."

"But Jane, you only see the good parts of our team. You don't see what we see on a daily basis." Penelope responded, also more calm than she had been a minute ago.

"Kiddo, I won't lie to you, there is a positive side to being an FBI agent, but the negatives far outweigh the positives." Dave tried explaining. "Is our team close? Yes, of course, but along with that closeness comes the worry that you may lose one or more of those team members either physically or psychologically. You know that has happened before!"

"I understand that, but this is still something I want to do." Jane said stubbornly.

"This is a moot discussion." Hotch said, calmly. "This. Is. Not. Happening." And with that, Hotch tore Jane's application in half.

Jane wasn't upset that he tore up her application, she had a copy of the completed application on her hard drive, she was upset that he was still trying to run her life. They all were.

"I don't think you understand." Jane said, just as calmly as her father. "I am not asking for your permission, I am telling you that I'm submitting my application to the FBI."

"Young lady." Hotch began, with a warning rumble in his voice that Jane recognized from her childhood. "As long as you live under my roof, you will do what I say and I am telling you that this is not happening."

Jane couldn't believe that her father had played the "if you live under my roof" card! She was so mad she was shaking. "Well thankfully I'm not sixteen years old anymore and I can remedy this situation, I won't live under _your_ roof anymore!" She ran past her father and godparents and up the stairs. A short moment later they all heard her bedroom door slam.

Dave, Penelope and Hotch all just stared at each other for a moment. "Did I just step in to the Twilight Zone?" Hotch asked weakly.

"I can't believe this is happening, just when we thought everything was set she throws us this curveball." Penelope said, frustrated nearly to tears.

"It is _not_ going down this way. Do you mind if I take a crack at her Hotch?" Dave asked.

"Be my guest, someone has to get her to listen to reason."

**********

Jane ran up the stairs to her bedroom and slammed the door behind her. Who in the hell did they think they were? She was a grown woman for god's sakes! She paused and looked at her bed. As angry as she was right now, she was sorely tempted to lay down on her bed for a minute; she had gotten about five hours of sleep over the past three days. Suddenly, there was a knock on her door.

"Go away!" She yelled with renewed anger as she grabbed a duffel bag out of her closet and started throwing clothes in it, all thoughts of sleep forgotten. She had to get out of this house!

The door opened and Dave stepped in. "You're behaving like a child Jane."

"I don't care! The three of you are treating me like a child so I might as well act like one!" She yelled at him, still packing.

"You just don't understand the kind of life an FBI agent leads, even non-BAU agents! You have to live and breathe the job. None of us want that for you." He yelled at her. "Go to medical school and after you graduate, if you're still interested then apply to the FBI. There are many departments that have doctors on their teams."

"Great, so I can spend four more years in school and then have further training at the academy. No thanks! Have you ever thought that maybe I don't want to be in school the rest of my life?!" She yelled this as she was shoving her laptop and other books into her book bag. She grabbed both bags, pushed past Dave to get out of her bedroom and went down the hall to the bathroom and packed her medications, listening to Dave yell at her the whole time. He used his big threat as she was walking down the stairs.

"Good luck even getting into the Academy, Jane. The FBI is all about who you know and unless you have someone on the inside who will write a recommendation for you, you don't stand a chance and I doubt anyone on our team will do that for you."

Jane got to the bottom of the stairs, turned around and then looked at him. "Well it's lucky for me that I _do _have someone on the inside who will help me through the application process and will put in a good word for me." She said calmly and a little smugly.

Dave was taken aback, as were Hotch and Garcia who had overheard this last part. "Who do you know that will do that for you?" Dave asked, confused.

"Erin Strauss." Jane loved seeing the shocked looks on their faces. "I've already discussed this with her and she is happy to help me."

Hotch felt like he had been punched in the gut. He had been holding on to the same hope that Dave was, that without someone on the inside his daughter didn't stand a chance. He never imagined that Strauss would be the one to help his daughter. God, with a Section Chief helping her through, Jane had a real chance of being hired by the FBI. Aaron felt a little sick to his stomach, then he saw that his daughter had packed her bags and planned on leaving.

"Where are you going?" He asked her.

"What do you care? I won't be 'under your roof' anymore!" She shouted, heading for the door.

"Jane don't be like this, stay and talk." Penelope pleaded.

"You mean talk as in you all talk and I listen and obey like a child? No thanks Pen." Jane knew she was acting childish but at this point she didn't care, all she wanted to do was get away from everyone.

Hotch, anticipating a move like this from Jane held up some wires. "I'm not sure, but you'll probably need these to get your car started."

She couldn't believe he sabotaged her car in order to keep her at the house. "Well gosh dad, it's a good thing we don't live in a major metropolitan city with a large underground transportation system. And it's especially lucky that we don't live close to a stop on that system." Jane said, her words dripping with sarcasm…they lived about five minutes from a Metro stop.

"This is nuts, do you want me to just cuff her to the radiator Hotch?" Dave asked.

"Try it Dave and you'll pull back a stump. Derek has been teaching me fighting techniques since I was fourteen years old and I've gotten pretty good at it." Jane said as she opened the door. She stepped out and then said over her shoulder, "Thank you all so much for your support in this. I know I appreciate it immensely." With that Jane slammed the door behind her.

**********

_There is at least one more chapter left in this story arc...possibly two. Reviews are always appreciated!_


	11. Chapter 11: The Waiting Game

Disclaimer: Criminal Minds is owned by CBS. I own nothing but my imagination.

A Different Kind of Life-Chapter 11

The Waiting Game

_**This is a continuation from chapter 10. Jane is 22 years old in this chapter**_

Jane stormed down the driveway and onto the sidewalk; the only thing she heard was the pulsing of blood in her ears. She started towards the Metro station, walking so fast she was almost running. She couldn't remember the last time she had been this angry! God help them if any of them tried coming after her, she had her pepper spray in her purse and she was pissed off enough that she might use it.

After about two minutes, Jane slowed down when she realized that she didn't have a plan for where she would stay. She could stay with her boyfriend, Marshal, at his apartment, but she really needed to get some studying done tonight and if she stayed there she could guarantee that studying would be the last thing on their minds. She finally decided that she would stay with her friend Amy, who lived in the dorms. She would pretty much just be using Amy's dorm room for storing her clothes and as a place to shower since Jane didn't plan on sleeping much in the next few days, she had too much work to do.

As she took the Metro into town, it dawned on Jane that her family could find her very easily if they wanted to. She hoped they would back off and give her some space but she didn't put it past Pen to track her every move, so Jane decided that when she got into the city she would hit an ATM and take out enough cash to get her through tomorrow and the weekend and then she would call Marshal to tell him what had happened and to let him know that she wouldn't be reachable via her cell phone this weekend. After that, she planned to go "off the grid" as much as possible so the team couldn't find her. She didn't hold out much hope that her plan would work, since their jobs were to hunt down criminals, but she had no other option.

**

Back at the house Dave, Penelope and Hotch were in shock at the way the evening had turned out and they were brainstorming about what to do.

"I say we go after her and drag her back here if need be." Dave said. "She shouldn't be wandering around the city alone this late at night."

"Dave, it's only eight-thirty and she _is_ 22 years old. She will be fine by herself." Penelope responded. "If we drag her back now it will make things worse."

"I don't see how things could get much worse." Dave muttered.

Hotch spoke up. "As much as I want to haul her back here and make her listen to reason, I think Garcia's right, if we do that she could rebel further and we could lose her forever. I think right now we all need to cool off."

"Yeah, but Hotch, what if she does something _really _stupid? What if she contacts Georgetown Medical School and declines her acceptance?" Dave asked.

Shit, he hadn't thought of that! "Garcia, how much access do you have from your personal, non-work laptop?"

"Well…" Penelope said hesitantly, "That depends on who's asking. Is it my boss asking, who could potentially fire me over my answer, or is it the distraught father of a daughter who may be about to make one of the biggest mistakes of her life?"

"It's the father asking, Garcia. There will be no professional repercussions over this." Hotch said firmly.

"Well in that case, I could start a small war from my personal laptop." She responded, grabbing the computer from her bag.

"Good, now can you get into Georgetown's registration database and make it impossible for people to get access to it?" Hotch inquired.

"I like where you're going with this, sir. Yes, I can take down the system on a temporary basis, which would make it impossible for anyone to add or remove people from the system. How long would you like it blocked for?" She asked, already hacking into Georgetown's system.

"Until the end of business Monday. That gives her tomorrow and the weekend to cool down and come to her senses. If we don't hear from her by then, we will go to plan B."

"Which is?" Dave asked.

"That's when we find her, drag her back here kicking and screaming and lock her in her room until the first day of medical school." Hotch said, not entirely sure if he was joking or not.

"I still think that's what we should be doing now, but if you're content with doing nothing over the next four days, I guess I can't argue with that." Dave responded.

"Oh, I won't just be twiddling my thumbs for the next few days. Tomorrow morning, I plan on meeting with our section chief to discuss her meddling with my daughter's future." Hotch said grimly.

"You _have _to let me come with you when you do that! I love intimidating that bitch." Dave practically begged Hotch.

"The more the merrier." Hotch said to Dave, smiling slightly. "Garcia, I also want to track Jane so I know she's OK and so I know that she's at least in the city. Can you track her credit and debit cards and her cell phone?"

"I can, but sir? She has spent way too much time with me, she's going to know exactly what we'll be tracking and my guess is that after tonight she won't use her cards or cell." Garcia responded, putting alerts on Jane's cards and cell phone. "It already shows that Jane made a $100 withdrawal from an ATM at the Foggy Bottom Metro stop and at that same stop she also made a three minute phone call to Marshal. The phone is now turned off. If I had to guess, I would say that she is probably headed to a friend's dorm at Georgetown since Marshal doesn't live anywhere near the Foggy Bottom stop."

"Well at least she isn't shacking up with her boyfriend." Hotch muttered. "Is there any way you can track her using her student ID? I know she has to swipe it when she goes into the library."

"Good thinking, sir! I will put a trace on her student ID."

"Good, and I'm not joking, if we haven't heard from her by Monday night, I'll have some uniforms pick her up and bring her in if I have to." Hotch said decisively.

**

Jane arrived at Amy's dorm at about nine-thirty that night. Amy could tell that Jane was upset so she let her in and let Jane pour her heart out. Jane had a good cry and then asked Amy if she could leave her clothes in her room and take naps on her futon. Amy agreed, so Jane showered and changed and headed over to the campus library where she worked on various class work and her thesis until six o'clock the next morning. Not for the first time, Jane was happy that she chose a school that had a twenty-four hour library. After leaving the library, Jane went back to Amy's dorm, showered, took a 45 minute nap and then left for a breakfast date. After breakfast she headed for her internship; she was interning at the Smithsonian Natural History Museum working on a project about evolution. She would be there all day.

At the BAU headquarters, Hotch was starting the day with a strong cup of coffee, he hadn't slept much the night before. He ran into Dave in the break room and Dave looked like he hadn't slept well either.

"Strauss has an offsite meeting this morning, but she will be back by nine, let's ambush her then." Dave said

"Sounds like a plan." Hotch said, adding more sugar to his coffee.

**

At 855am, Erin Strauss walked through the BAU bullpen and up to her office. Both Aaron and Dave were keeping an eye out for her arrival and they met in the hallway between their offices.

"You ready to do this?" Hotch asked him.

"More than ready. You just keep your mouth shut as much as possible. She can't do much to me, but she can screw with your career." Dave told him.

They walked over to Strauss' office, knocked and opened the door.

"Do you have a minute ma'am?" Hotch asked tightly.

"That's about all I have, I have meetings scheduled all day." Strauss responded, she was pretty sure she knew why Hotch and Rossi wanted to talk to her. She was surprised that Garcia wasn't with them.

They both came in and sat down. Hotch was about to say something when Dave piped up. "God, you've really fucked up this time, Erin."

"Excuse me?! "

"You couldn't leave well enough alone, could you?" Dave yelled. " Jane was all set to start medical school in the fall and then you had to agree to help her get hired here. Do you really want her to have the same kind of shitty personal lives that we all have? Do you really want to expose her to the dangers that are inherent in this job? Are you a-"

Hotch interrupted him, seeing Strauss turn almost purple with anger. "What Dave means ma'am is that we wish you would have let us know that Jane was considering such a radical move. That way we wouldn't have been as blindsided as we were last night."

"The last time I checked, Agent Hotchner, your daughter is a grown woman capable of making her own decisions. She came to me last month asking for my help. I didn't tell you about it because she specifically asked me not to. I can't imagine why she wouldn't want you to know." Strauss said sarcastically.

"Still Erin, to not say anything to us? This is a huge decision she's making." Dave said, still pissed.

"Well up until last week I could tell that Jane wasn't serious about joining, but your reactions last night pushed her to actually submit her application. For two world class profilers who study human behavior you have no idea how to deal with a young woman. When we talked today-"

"You heard from her today? Is she ok?" Hotch asked.

"Yes, I had breakfast with her this morning and aside from the fact that she looks exhausted, she's fine, she's staying with a friend in the dorms. She gave me her application and asked me to submit it for her. I'm going to wait a few days to see if she changes her mind, but if I don't hear from her by Wednesday, I'm going to push it through."

Dave rose from his chair. "You're making a big mistake by doing that, Erin! Just leave it the fuck alone!"

Erin also rose from her chair. "Tread very carefully David Rossi. I know who your contacts are, but I also have some friends in high places, friends who wouldn't mind seeing you retire again. I am willing to overlook the insubordination that has taken place today because I know you're upset, but don't push me too far."

Dave and Erin stared at each other for a minute before Dave finally stormed out of her office.

"It's always a pleasure ma'am." Hotch said dryly as he followed Dave.

They both went to the break room for more coffee, Dave ranting about Strauss the entire way. When they got to the break room, they saw that the entire team was there waiting for them.

"We saw you in Strauss' office and we heard the yelling, is everything OK?" Emily asked them.

"No, it isn't." Hotch replied and then filled them in on what was happening with Jane. They were all surprised by her decision, but they all had work to do and they made their way back to their desks.

At 700pm that night, Hotch made his way to Garcia's lair. She looked as exhausted as he felt.

"Anything to report, Penelope?" Hotch asked her.

"Not much, sir. Jane usually spends all day Friday at the Smithsonian, working on her internship project. I heard that you and Rossi really gave it to Strauss today." Garcia said with a smile.

"It was more Dave than me, but that's only because he beat me to it. Strauss seems to think that our reactions last night pushed Jane into actually submitting her application. She thinks that Jane wasn't serious about it until now. Strauss also thinks that Jane will change her mind." Hotch replied.

"Do you think she will, sir?" Garcia asked hopefully.

"I hope so Penelope, I hope so." Hotch said softly.

**

Jane found herself in the library again on Friday night. She planned to work on her thesis all weekend and then submit her first draft to her professor. In order to do that, she would need to pull all-nighters all weekend. She finally left the library at 400am on Saturday morning and returned to Amy's room to sleep for a couple of hours. She woke up at 700am, showered and was back at the library at 800am. She spent the entire day writing her thesis, finally stopping for a break at 500pm.

Jane was standing in line at the campus coffee shop, wishing she could just get an IV of coffee, when she spotted a familiar face. She got her coffee and made her way to his table.

"Spying on me, Spencer?" Jane asked, sitting down.

"Jane! How's it going?" Spencer tried to sound surprised to see her. It didn't work.

"It's going great, I'm up to my eyeballs in course work and I have to finish the first draft of my thesis by Monday morning. Other than that, everything is perfect." She said. "Did Dave and my dad send you? Wait, that would be way too subtle for them, it had to be Penelope."

"I…I don't know what you're talking about." Reid stammered, not meeting her eyes.

"Whatever Spencer, just tell them I'm all right. I have to get back to the library." Jane started to get up from the table.

"Wait, Jane." Spencer grabbed her wrist. "Look, Garcia _did _ send me, but I would have come anyway. I'm the youngest person on the team and I understand the allure of the FBI." He paused as Jane sat down again. "Hell, I should be heading up some NASA project, making a TON more money than I am now, but instead I'm chasing monsters. What I'm trying to say is I understand where you're coming from and if you ever want to talk, I'm here for you."

"Thanks Spencer, you have no idea how what that means to me." Jane said softly. She smiled at him and stood up again to leave. "Now I really do need to get back to the library though. Thanks again." She leaned down to kiss his cheek and then returned to her lair in the library.

**

Sunday dawned and Hotch awoke hoping to find his daughter asleep in her bedroom. He got up, threw on his robe and went to her room. Empty. He looked around her room, the posters of boy bands and Hollywood heart throbs from her teenage years had been replaced with framed pictures. Jane loved decorating with pictures of people she loved and places she had been and her room was full of those pictures. He knew that many parents felt burdened when their children lived with them while going to college but he had always felt lucky that he had four extra years with his daughter. He knew she was going to get her own place when she started medical school…if she started medical school…and he was not looking forward to living alone in the house.

Shaking his head, he left her room and made his way back to his own. Picking up his cell phone, he called Garcia.

"Good morning, Hotch." Garcia answered her phone.

"Hi Garcia, sorry if I woke you."

"Pfft, please, everyone knows that I require little sleep, although it looks like your daughter is planning on beating me in the lack of sleep department."

Hotch sighed, he knew his daughter hadn't been sleeping much during the last week and a half because of school. "How is she Penelope?"

"Well, she hasn't called me but that's to be expected. I can tell you that she arrived at the library at 800am yesterday and stayed until 500pm when she left to get some coffee. She may have conveniently run into the lovely Dr. Reid at the coffee shop and he says she looked ok, tired but ok. After that she went back to the library and stayed until 1000pm, worked out at the student fitness center until midnight and then went back to the library where she is currently still working."

"You got all of that from her student ID?" Hotch asked, impressed.

"Well…no, I hacked into Georgetown's security cameras." She said, hesitantly.

"Good work, Garcia. Stay on it." Hotch ordered her.

"Yes sir." Hotch could almost hear her snap a mock salute over the phone.

**

Jane spent all of Sunday at the library. She was nearly finished with her thesis and she still had to finish some work for her other courses, not to mention do some research for her internship. She was just ending a thought in her thesis when she felt a hand on her shoulder. She blearily looked up from her computer to find that the hand was attached to Jason Gideon. Emily Prentiss was standing next to him.

"God, did they send you here to come and get me? If they did, you can tell them to forget it; I'm too busy to fight another round with them." Jane said, annoyed.

"Well hello to you too Jane, I'm doing well, thanks for asking." Gideon said sarcastically. "By 'them' I am assuming you mean your dad, Dave and Penelope? They didn't send us; we were worried about you and we know that at this point in the semester you must be living on coffee and Mountain Dew. Looks like we were right about that one." Jason and Emily looked around Jane's study carrel; it was littered with empty coffee cups and Mountain Dew cans.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to snap at you, I'm just really tired and really stressed out and not knowing when the other shoe is going to drop with the Three Stooges back at Quantico is keeping me on edge." Jane said this as she hugged each of them.

Emily snorted at the Three Stooges description. "Why don't you take a break and let us take you out for a real dinner, not the fast food crap that you've been eating."

"Dinner sounds great, I've been too busy to eat, I don't think I've had anything other than coffee since breakfast and I'm at a good stopping point in my paper right now." Jane packed up her books and laptop and followed Jason and Emily to Jason's SUV.

They went to a Chinese restaurant near campus. After they placed their orders, Emily asked Jane, "So why the FBI? You've never seemed interested in it before…and before you get all defensive, I'm not going to jump all over you, I'm genuinely curious."

Jane explained her rationale to Emily. "Those are some valid reasons. I can understand why your dad doesn't want you to join the FBI, but it's ultimately your decision. I know how you feel though; my decision to join the FBI didn't go over too well in the Prentiss household either. If you do decide to apply, you have my full support." Emily told her.

Jane teared up a little when she heard that. "How about you?" She asked Gideon. "Do you think I'm making a horrible mistake?"

"It doesn't matter what I think, mistakes are a part of life. I think it's your decision, you are the only one who knows what's right for you." Jason responded.

"Thanks…to both of you, it means a lot that you both support me." Jane said, shakily.

"It sounds to me like you also have Erin Strauss' support, or at least that's what everyone in the BAU heard when Dave was shouting at her." Emily said, grinning.

"Oh crap! I hope they didn't kill each other! I should have warned Erin about Dave's temper."

"She held her own against Dave, threats were exchanged and she ultimately told him that she would continue to help you through the application process if that's what you wanted. Then she threw him and your dad out of her office." Emily started to laugh at this point.

Jane was giggling too. "I would have LOVED to have seen that!"

The rest of the dinner conversation was light, Jane tried explaining the topic of her thesis, but she could tell that Jason and Emily didn't understand it. Jason told them about some of the things he did while he was away from the FBI and Emily talked about some of her travels.

After dinner, while they were waiting for dessert, Jane turned to Emily, "Can I ask you a question?"

"Ask away." Emily responded.

"How long have you and Jason been an item?" Jane asked with a grin.

Emily choked on her tea. "What…what are you talking about? We're just friends."

"Yeah, right." Jane said with a snort. "I live with one of the best profilers on the planet and I've picked up a few tricks from him, I can tell that you two are a couple. Are you trying to keep it quiet? If so, good luck. My guess is there is a betting pool about you two at work."

Emily looked at Jason with a panicky look on her face. Jason was smiling. "I told you Em, it would be impossible to keep this a secret. I'm glad the cat is finally out of the bag."

Emily smiled and gave him a light kiss. "We've been together for about six months. We were _trying_ to keep it secret because of the fraternization rules."

"Well I think you make a cute couple." Jane said with a smile.

After dinner Emily and Jason dropped Jane back off at the library. They watched as she went into the building. With a sigh Emily said "Do you think we were ever that young?"

Laughing, Jason said, "Do you really want to be that age again? She's an adult but still in somewhat of a childish world and then she has the protective streak of her father to contend with."

"Do you think she'll actually join the FBI?" Emily asked him.

"No, my guess is that after she turns in her thesis tomorrow and finishes her other work, she'll give up on the whole idea of the FBI. I think she's just scared of the future and stressed out right now."

"I hope you're right. As much as I said I would support her, I can see why Hotch wouldn't like her to join." Emily said right before the motion of the car put her to sleep.

**********

_One more chapter left in this arc. Reviews are always appreciated!_


	12. Chapter 12: My Mind Is Made Up

Disclaimer: Criminal Minds is owned by CBS. I own nothing but my imagination.

A Different Kind of Life-Chapter 12

My Mind is Made Up

_**This is a continuation from chapter 11. Jane is 22 years old in this chapter**_

Monday morning found Jane still in the library. It was 700am and she had just sent the first draft of her thesis to her professor. She knew she would have to revise it, based on the professor's comments, but she was finished! Not only that, she had finished the assignments for her other classes as well. She was _so_ relieved! She knew there were other class projects coming up as it was only early April, but for right now she had a lull in her work for the first time in forever. She gathered her things up and planned to go for a morning run at the fitness center. Her plans changed as she stood up and a wave of dizziness crashed over her, she was exhausted… she tried to remember the last time she got a good night's sleep and couldn't. She had been surviving on catnaps for over a week.

Jane stumbled back to Amy's room so she could take a nap before the one class that she had that day. As tired as she was, she couldn't fall asleep right away so she began planning for the day. She really wanted to get caught up on sleep, see Marshal and then get together with friends but she knew that she had to go and talk to her dad, Dave and Penelope. She didn't want to go since she didn't know how she felt about them at the moment; she was still slightly pissed but she also missed them and wanted things to be ok between all of them, but she was pretty sure that if she didn't contact her dad soon, he would have her brought in to headquarters. After making the decision to head to Quantico after her class, she fell into a dreamless sleep.

**********

At the BAU, Hotch was in the break room getting some coffee when Dave walked in. "Any word from her?" He asked.

"None, but Garcia is still tracking her. I'm getting worried, Dave, I expected her to contact us by now."

Emily walked into the break room and heard their conversation. "I wouldn't worry Hotch. She had a bunch of school work to finish this weekend and she was practically living in the library, but she had to have everything turned in by this morning, so I am betting she will show up later today."

Hotch was amazed. "How do you know all of that?"

Emily looked up from the tea she was fixing. "Jason and I went to the library last night and dragged her out for a proper meal. She told us all about her assignments, papers and due dates."

"You and Jason…interesting." Dave said, grinning.

"Yeah, me and Jason. Is there a problem with that? And don't pretend you don't already know about us, I know everyone does." She said defensively.

Dave laughed. "It _is _hard to keep secrets from a bunch of profilers. I'll have to check with Derek to see who had today in the Prentiss/Gideon pool."

"_Anyway,_" Emily continued, "She is going to come around Hotch, just give her a little more time."

"Thanks Emily." Hotch said as he left with his coffee.

**********

After her class, Jane bit the bullet and took the Metro out to Quantico. She was tired… so tired… but as she got closer to her stop her adrenaline started pumping and she began waking up and mentally preparing for the "discussion" she knew was about to happen.

She entered the FBI annex, got her visitors pass and headed for the BAU bullpen. Once there, she ran into Emily and started chatting with her about the previous night.

"Well, Jason and I are 'officially' a couple around here." Emily told her.

"Good for you! You guys are great together, I'm glad you're not hiding it anymore." Jane said, smiling. Her smile faded as she heard her father speak behind her.

"So have you finally come to your senses?" Hotch asked her.

Jane twirled around with a stunned look on her face. She had hoped her father had calmed down since Thursday night and they could have an actual discussion, but it sounded like he was being just as hard-headed as he always was.

"Forget this!" Jane said to him and then spun on her heel and stormed towards the elevators.

Back in the bullpen Emily just stared at Hotch. "What was that?!" She asked him in disbelief.

Shit, he had about a thousand things he could have said to her that would have been _much_ less confrontational, but no, he had to pick the phrase that pissed her off the most. He sprinted towards the elevators and got there just as it arrived.

"Jane wait, I'm sorry, I shouldn't have said that. Please stay and talk to me." Hotch pleaded.

Jane eyed the elevator, longing to get in it and go back to the dorms and sleep for awhile, but she knew she couldn't put this off indefinitely.

"Alright I'll stay, but only if you agree to hear me out before making any judgments or announcements about my future." She said.

"Agreed." Hotch put his hand on his daughter's back and led her back through the bullpen. He could tell by the stiffness in her spine and by the rigid way she walked that she was already on the defensive for the upcoming conversation and he guessed that it was because of his earlier comment.

When they got to his office, Jane sat on the couch while her father remained standing. "I'm going to go next door and get Dave and call Garcia to have her come up here. Is that OK with you?" He asked her this because he didn't want her to think that he was making unilateral decisions.

"That's fine; they should both be here for this." Jane said nervously.

Hotch stepped out of his office and went next door to Dave's. "Jane is here and she wants to talk with you, me and Penelope."

"Finally! I thought we were going to actually have to go out and bring her in. How is she?" Dave asked.

"She's nervous. I kind of fucked things up when she first got here and now she's on the defensive. She only agreed to stay when I promised her that we would hear her out without jumping all over her." Hotch replied.

Dave agreed to the terms as he followed Hotch to his office. Once there he sat across from Jane in one of the chairs while Hotch called Garcia.

"How are you?" Dave asked Jane, stiffly.

"I'm fine." Jane replied, coolly.

"Well you look like shit." He told her.

"Wow Dave, with lines like that it's hard to believe you've been married three times and are currently single. You sure do know how to talk to the ladies." Jane said with a hint of a smile.

Dave gave her a small grin. "So why are we here Jane?"

"I'll tell you all once Pen gets here." She responded.

"Well it's a good thing I'm here then!" Penelope announced as she walked into Hotch's office, shutting the door behind her. She went over to Jane and gave her a kiss on the cheek. "You look like hell, Sweetie." Penelope told her as she sat down next to Jane on the sofa. Dave and Hotch were sitting across from them in chairs.

Jane was suddenly jittery as a rush of nervous adrenaline hit her. "I'm here to tell you that my mind is made up…" Jane said in a shaky voice and then paused and looked down at her hands.

During that pause the three other occupants of the room had the same general idea, but were planning on implementing it in different ways.

Dave was fingering the handcuffs attached to his belt and was scanning Hotch's office for something sturdy that he could handcuff Jane to while they all tried to talk some sense into her. He was not letting her get away again.

Penelope was mentally planning the way in which she would hack into the HR system and delete or at least seriously interfere with Jane's FBI application.

Hotch was trying to think of a legal loophole that would allow him to lock his daughter in the basement until she gave up the idea of joining the FBI without being charged with kidnapping.

Jane looked up at the three of them and finished her announcement. "I'm going to medical school."

There was a stunned silence and then everyone reacted at once.

Garcia squealed. "I knew it; I _knew _you would make the right choice!" She hugged Jane ferociously.

"Thank god!" Hotch exclaimed, looking at the ceiling. He came over to Jane, pulled her to her feet and gave her a big hug.

"You really know how to knock a few years off of a guy's life, Jane." Dave said as he took over hugging Jane.

When Dave finally let go of her, they all sat back down. "Why the change of heart about the FBI, Sweets?" Garcia asked her.

"I was never really serious about joining, I was just pissed that you told me I couldn't join." Jane replied, ignoring the stunned looks on their faces. "I am less than two months away from graduation and I've been freaking out. All of my friends are either going into the workforce where they will have jobs and benefits or else they are going abroad in the Peace Corps. All I could think of is that I will be in school for the next four years and then have another three to seven years of training depending on my specialty." Jane paused to breathe and seeing understanding dawn on everyone's faces, she plunged ahead with tears in her voice. "I was, and still am freaked out by the idea of being in school for that long and by the idea of going into student debt for the next twenty years." She saw Dave's face darken briefly. "I am never going to have time to see any of you, Marshal or anyone else for the next four years and I'm just plain scared that I won't cut it in medical school. Despite all of that though, the allure of being a doctor kept pulling me back in."

"Why the FBI though?" Hotch asked her.

"It wasn't just the FBI, that's the application you happened to find. I have half finished applications for staffer jobs with members of congress, the Smithsonian, and various lobbying firms. I toyed with the idea of going part-time for my master's degree while working full-time, I almost took the Law School Admission Test…hell, I even contacted Uncle Sean to see if I could work at his restaurant in New York." Jane realized that she might have just gotten her uncle in some trouble. Her dad's next remark confirmed that.

"Sean knew you were having doubts and he didn't tell me? I am going to have a long talk with my little brother the next time I see him." Hotch said, already planning that meeting.

"Sweets, we will all help you while you're in school. We may not know the science behind your courses but we can help you study, we can give you support when you are having a stressful time and we can just be here for you when you need us." Garcia told her, hoping to alleviate some of her fear.

"Well, whatever the reason, I'm glad you decided to go to medical school." Dave said, starting to get up. "What are you guys doing for lunch today?" He asked them.

"Wait, we're not done here." Jane said

"We're not?" Dave sat back down.

"No. I'm still kind of pissed at all of you. This whole thing could have been avoided if you had talked to me like an adult on Thursday night. I could have, no I _would have_ explained all of this to you if you hadn't treated me like a child. You all wouldn't listen to me when I tried to explain and then you started yelling at me and issuing ultimatums. I felt like I was sixteen years old again!"

"Jane, you need to know where we were coming from-" Her dad tried explaining.

"No!" Jane interrupted him, trying not to yell. "You three need to know where I was, and still am coming from. I am twenty-two years old. I know the three of you still see me as a child, but I am a grown woman and I can and will make my own decisions and _I _will run my life, not you! If I want it, or if you want to give it, I will take your _advice_, but never again will you intimidate me or threaten to interfere with whatever plans I make for the future. If it keeps happening then none of you-" Jane looked at Garcia, "will be privy to my personal life. I will tell you the stuff that I would tell anyone else but the chats and discussions about what is really affecting me, about my hopes and dreams will end. Does everyone get that?"

"OK, we get it!" Hotch said. "But you need to see our side of it, or at least mine. You had _never _talked about joining the Bureau before, so it was a complete shock to us! I thought you were sticking to the medical school plan and then I was blindsided when I found the FBI application…I was blindsided because you never told any of us that you were having doubts or freaking out. If you had shared your doubts with us earlier this whole thing might have been avoided, all I knew was that I couldn't live with having to worry about you every day if you joined the FBI and I _would_ have worried about you, _every single day_." Hotch said, dangerously close to yelling.

"I think your father speaks for all three of us. You also haven't been affected by what we do in the FBI and we would like to keep it that way." Dave said.

"I understand that, but I don't think you guys understand that I worry about _you_ every single day. So many things could happen to all of you and I worry about it. Dad's been shot, Penelope has been shot, Elle was shot, Jason lost his shit for awhile, Emily had the crap kicked out of her, Spencer was kidnapped…hell, _I _was kidnapped. I might not be on the team Dave, but if you think I haven't been affected by the FBI then you are batshit crazy. Everyone I love has had something happen to them." Jane stopped for a second. "Yes, I said everyone I love. Even with your bullying and intimidation, I still love the three of you like crazy and I couldn't imagine not having all of you in my life." Jane was teary again…damn sleep deprivation!

"Ok." Hotch said with a smile. "We promise not to intimidate you or get hurt because of the job if you promise to talk with us before making a major life change or decision. Deal?"

"Deal." Jane said as she got a second hug from her dad that day.

Hotch released her and took his first good look at her. "Jesus Jane, you look horrible! When was the last time you slept?"

Jane sat back down. "What is this, 'tell Jane how bad she looks' day? I'll have you know I got some sleep this morning before class."

Hotch eyed her suspiciously. "How much sleep?"

Shit, she knew she couldn't lie to the two profilers and Penelope. "Ummm…an hour and a half."

"And how about the night before that, and the night before that, and-" Hotch was interrupted.

"OK, ok! In the past week, I've gotten about fifteen hours of sleep total." Jane saw the horrified looks on their faces. "What? I've been busy with school work, my thesis and my internship."

"Have you also not had time to eat? Because it looks like you've lost a bunch of weight too." Garcia asked her.

"You know how it is, you get involved with something and then you lose track of time. I may have forgotten to eat once or twice." Jane said, meekly.

"Try five or six times by the looks of it." Dave commented.

"OK, I'm not taking lunch until 200pm because of a meeting I have to attend at noon. Does that time work for both of you?" Hotch asked Dave and Penelope. They both nodded.

"Great, that leaves you just over two hours to take a nap on my couch, Jane and then we'll go grab lunch, a big lunch for you. Then we'll come back, you can sleep some more and I will drive you home." Hotch said decisively.

Jane just stared at him. "What happened to not running my life? What if I have plans for today?"

"Cancel them, you can make these decisions when you've had more sleep. I am _not_ trying to run your life; I _am_ trying to help you since the sleep deprivation has to be affecting you." Jane tried to interrupt, but Hotch pushed ahead. "You know that any doctor would agree with me on this, you _know_ that! Let me help you for the next few days."

"OK, you're lucky I'm too tired to put up a fight. I do have to talk to Erin before I take a nap. I want to tell her to pull my application."

"I can talk to her for you if you like." Dave said mischievously.

"Thanks Dave, but this needs to come from me. Also, I think the rest of the team has already been treated once today by our discussion here, I think a shouting match between you and Erin would totally overload them." Jane wanted to thank Erin for her support.

"Spoilsport!" Dave told her as he got up and left for his office.

"I'll see you at lunch. Glad to not be working with you!" Garcia said as she kissed Jane on the cheek and headed back to her lair.

"We have a really weird family." Jane told her father.

"No kidding!" Hotch said as they both left his office. Jane turned to go to Erin's office while Hotch turned the other way towards the elevators. As he passed Dave's office, Dave called out to him, "Hey Hotch, got a minute?"

**********

Jane returned to her father's office after talking to Erin. Strauss hadn't been surprised about Jane pulling her FBI application from consideration and she was glad that she made up with her father and godparents. She also told Jane that she would support her in whatever way she could during her medical school years.

Jane made herself comfy on her dad's couch…it was so much nicer than the metal futon that she had been sleeping on in the dorms. As tired as she was though, she still couldn't fall asleep, so as she stared at the ceiling she mentally planned for the rest of the week.

"Shouldn't you be sleeping?" Dave's voice rumbled from the doorway.

"No matter how tired I am I can never instantly fall asleep, it usually takes awhile." Jane replied, starting to sit up so she could look at him.

"No, stay laying down, you need to rest." Dave said as he came into the office, pulled a chair up next to the couch and sat down. "As long as you're up, I want to talk to you for a minute."

"Sure." Jane replied, wondering what Dave wanted to talk about.

"I want to pay for medical school, Jane. I don't want the added worry of student loans on your mind while you are in training. I will pay for your tuition, books, housing, supplies and whatever else you need while you are in school. Consider it a gift from your fairy godfather." Dave mentally winced at that last part, it didn't come out right.

Jane was speechless for a minute. "God Dave, thanks, but I can't accept that from you. Medical school is going to be _really _expensive, I can't ask for that kind of money from you."

"You didn't ask, I offered." She tried interrupting him, but Dave continued. "Jane, with all of the money I get from my book royalties, plus my salary at the BAU, I have more money than I will ever need. If you don't let me do this then the money will just be divided by the ex-wives when I die. Trust me when I tell you that they have gotten more than enough money from me, they don't need any more."

"It's not just the money, Dave…it's the strings. I want to be able to live my life and make my decisions without answering to anyone. What happens if I choose a specialty that you don't agree with, or you think is too demanding or dangerous? What if, after I graduate, I decide to go somewhere dangerous to practice medicine? I've been considering working in Afghanistan or Iraq for a few years after med school so that I can help the women there. Are you seriously saying that you would let me go without a hassle?" Jane asked him.

"No, I wouldn't let you go without a hassle, but that has nothing to do with the money, it would be about the danger you would be placing yourself in, but after our talk today I don't think I would react as badly as I did Thursday night. Let me do this for you, Jane. You are the closest thing to a daughter that I will ever have and I love you and want to help you. Let me help make this one worry disappear for you." Dave was almost pleading with her.

"I'll have to talk to my dad." Jane said relenting. "I don't know how he will feel about the whole thing."

"I already talked to him and he is on board. In fact he said that it will take one worry off of his mind since he felt bad that you would be taking out so many student loans." Dave told her.

Jane thought for a minute. "Well…ok…I guess you are paying for medical school. Thank you! I don't even know what else to say, you are doing such a huge thing here, I owe you big time." Jane's eyes were wet.

"You don't owe me a thing, this is what family does." Dave said, kissing her on the forehead. "I've got to get back to my office. You try and get some sleep."

"I will. I love you, Dave." Jane said to him.

"I love you too, sweetheart." Dave said and left Hotch's office.

Jane stared at the ceiling, wondering if that had really just happened when she finally fell into a deep sleep.

**********

_This chapter is FINALLY finished! I don't know why, but this chapter was hard for me...I knew how I wanted it to go, but I just couldn't write it. I hope to have another one-shot chapter posted tonight or tomorrow. My postings will probably slow down for the rest of October. I have a 10 page paper due next week and then the first draft of a 30 page paper due the last week of October so those will keep me pretty busy, but I will be back to posting about three times per week in November. If anyone has ideas for what they would like to see here, let me know. _

_Reviews are appreciated!  
_


	13. Chapter 13: Kicking and Screaming

Disclaimer: Criminal Minds is owned by CBS. I own nothing but my imagination.

A Different Kind of Life-Chapter 13

Kicking and Screaming

_**Jane is 18 years old in this chapter**_

Hotch was going to kill his daughter.

It was a shame, because he really loved her, but he was going to kill her if she didn't sit down and relax for a minute. It was the day before Jane's high school graduation and she had been flitting around the house cleaning and rearranging things. When she wasn't cleaning, she was sniping at him about things and she was getting on his last nerve.

He understood why Jane was nervous; she had been chosen as the class student speaker. Not the valedictorian, although her grades throughout high school had been pretty good, but the student elected by her class to give a speech. Jane was both honored by the fact that she was chosen and scared shitless that she was going to have to give a speech in front of everyone…she did not do public speaking well. As a result, she had a ton of nervous energy to burn off.

The last straw came at about 200pm that rainy Saturday afternoon. Hotch had settled on the couch with a couple of case files, when Jane came in and started dusting, _again. _Jane was not a neat freak, she was quite the opposite in fact, but when she was nervous or stressed out she cleaned. The house hadn't been messy to begin with, Hotch tried to keep it fairly tidy.

"Jane, why don't you sit down and unwind? Put in a movie if you want, I'll even watch that new zombie movie you got." Hotch didn't generally like zombie movies, but if it got his daughter to sit down, it would be worth it.

"Are you crazy?" Jane looked at him like he had two heads, "There is a TON of stuff to get done before my graduation ceremony and graduation party tomorrow. Stuff that evidently I'll have to do on my own since _somebody_ has made himself comfy on the couch."

Hotch ignored her sarcasm. "What else needs to be done, Jane? The house is immaculate, the food is bought and we can't set anything up in the backyard because of the rain." Jane tried to interrupt, but Hotch kept going, his irritation building. "I know what you're going to say; I checked the weather forecast and it's supposed to be sunny and 78 degrees tomorrow so you don't have to worry. I also know that your graduation robe is pressed and hanging along with your dress in your closet. There is nothing else that can be done until tomorrow. Now, for the love of GOD, will you sit down?!"

Jane stared at him for a second and then flopped onto the couch. She kept tapping her feet and her hands kept moving, but at least she was sitting. Hotch turned back to his paperwork, only to be interrupted thirty seconds later.

"Do you really think the house is clean enough? Maybe I should vacuum again."

Hotch set the file down and pinched the bridge of his nose. "The house is fine, the president himself could be coming tomorrow and the house would be good enough. Besides, it's just the team and some of your friends coming tomorrow, it's not like the floors need to be clean enough to eat off of."

"Oh my god, do you think the floors are dirty? Should I mop again?!" Jane started to get up from the couch, but Hotch grabbed her arm and pulled her back down. For a split second he considered slipping a valium into the juice she was drinking.

"The floors are FINE, Jane. Jesus Christ, you are going to drive me insane!" He was close to losing it with her.

She sat quietly for another minute, just long enough for him to pick his file back up and start reading. "Are you sure we have enough food for tomorrow?"

Hotch set the file down again, closed his eyes and mentally counted to ten. "Yes, I'm positive we have enough food for tomorrow. We have practically a cow's worth of hamburger, a million brats and hot dogs, you made your pasta salad, JJ and Will are bringing their homemade French fries, Emily is bringing fruit salad, Spencer is bringing regular salad, Penelope is bringing dessert and Dave and Derek are bringing drinks. Everything will be fine!"

"You're not going to try grilling tomorrow are you?" She asked belligerently.

He glared at her, "My grilling is not that bad."

Jane snorted, "Remember when you grilled at Dave's barbeque? Even his dog wouldn't eat your hamburgers. Didn't we end up ordering pizza that night?"

He gave her a dirty look, "You will be happy to know that Dave and Derek will be doing the grilling tomorrow, so you don't have to worry, EVERYTHING is taken care of. Would you _please_ just relax?!"

"I'm sorry? The most high strung man on the planet is telling _me _to relax?!" Jane said loudly. "Don't use words you don't understand, dad."

He stared at her, "You know how I've always had a line that you shouldn't cross with your smart remarks?"

"Am I coming up to it?" She asked, a bit sheepishly.

"No, look behind you." He said, sternly.

"Sorry!"

She was quiet for another few minutes and Hotch again picked up his file and began reading. "Maybe I should just dust over there…" Jane said, looking across the room.

Hotch threw his file down on the coffee table. "That's it! Get your gym bag and meet me at the door in five minutes."

"Where are we going?" Jane asked, confused.

"To the FBI gym at headquarters. Maybe that will help you burn off some of your nervous energy." 'God help me if it doesn't,' Hotch thought.

**********

They got to the gym half an hour later. Throughout the car ride, Jane chattered on about the party the next day and about how things needed to look better in the house. By the time they got to Quantico, Hotch thought he would lose his shit. He seriously considered breaking into Dave's office and raiding the bottle of scotch he knew his friend kept in his desk drawer.

An hour later, after she had taken a run on the indoor track, Hotch was watching Jane beat the crap out of a punching bag. God, she was strong! It had been awhile since they had both worked out together, he usually hit the FBI gym right after work and she stayed at her school's gym to work out. As he watched her daughter practice her kickboxing moves on the punching bag, he thought back to the first day of her training with Derek.

**********

Jane looked tiny standing across from Derek on the wrestling mats. She was fourteen years old and had just graduated from the eighth grade. Hotch had asked Derek to teach her some self defense moves so she was prepared for high school, he did not want some huge high school boy taking advantage of his daughter, he wanted her to be able to defend herself.

Emily was on the mat too, demonstrating the moves that Derek was teaching her. Derek wasn't teaching her specific fighting moves at this time, they were more of women's self defense moves.

The rest of the team was there as well, sitting in the bleachers, JJ and Garcia had even made popcorn and were passing it around. As Dave took some popcorn, he asked Hotch, "Aren't you nervous about Jane getting hurt?"

Hotch grinned at Dave, "I think there's more of a risk of Derek getting hurt, he's not taking Jane very seriously and she can really pack a punch. More than once, the father of our neighborhood's bully has come to me complaining of black eyes and other bruises that he's received from Jane." His daughter liked sticking up for a lot of the kids in the neighborhood.

"If she can already pack a punch, why are you having her train with Derek? It sounds like she can already take care of herself." Reid asked, chomping on popcorn.

"She _can_ punch, but I don't want her flailing wildly about, I would like her to have control over her strength, I think it could get her out of some tough situations." Hotch replied, watching as Derek and Emily modeled some techniques for Jane.

Down on the mats, Derek and Emily finished modeling some of the moves for Jane. "You up for trying some of this, Little Hotch?" Derek asked her.

"Um, I guess so." She replied, sounding unsure.

"What's wrong? This is just practice, why so unsure?" Derek asked her.

"They're making me nervous." Jane said, looking at the team in the bleachers. "Plus I'm scared I might hurt you."

Derek laughed. "Don't worry about me, I think I can hold my own against a fourteen year old girl." He said condescendingly, catching glares from both Jane and Emily. "As for the rest of the team, just pretend they aren't there, focus entirely on what we're doing."

Jane focused. Derek came at her and she tried throwing a punch the way he showed her. He caught her arm and put her on the floor. She got up and he came at her again and got a hold of her arm. Jane tried one of the release moves and Derek again got out of it and put her on the floor.

"Dammit!" Jane yelled, frustrated.

"Come on Little Hotch, clear your head and remember what I taught you." Derek told her, once again coming at her. This time he was facing her and got his hands on her shoulders. Everything Derek and Emily had taught her came back to her and instinctively she brought her knee up towards his groin. Unfortunately, at that very same moment an attractive female agent came into the gym to work out and Derek lost focus on his lesson with Jane.

Bam! Jane's knee hit her target, landing a blow to Derek's crotch. He gave a shriek and went down hard.

Hotch didn't think anyone could have been laughing as hard as he was if Dave hadn't been in the room. He honestly worried that the older agent might have a heart attack, he was laughing that hard. Hotch looked through his tears of laughter to the rest of his team. He had never seen Reid laughing as hard as he currently was, every couple of seconds he would let out a loud guffaw. JJ was doubled over, laughing so hard she was crying and Garcia was hooting with laughter. Emily down on the mat was laughing too hard to help Derek. The only person who wasn't laughing was Jane…and of course, Derek.

"Oh god! Derek, are you OK?" Jane said, kneeling down next to him.

"Yeah…I'll be fine…I just need a minute…" Derek grunted.

"I am _so_ sorry! I was just doing what you taught me and then you weren't paying attention, but I didn't think-" Jane was rambling, trying to explain what happened when Derek interrupted.

"It's OK, Jane, I should have been paying more attention. Besides, at least _you're_ trying to help me." He said, giving a dirty look to his team members in the bleachers, all of whom were still trying to quell their laughter.

Emily finally got her laughter under control and came over to them. "Are you really OK Derek?" She asked, drying her tears on her sleeve.

Derek looked up at her from where he was still laying on the ground. "Yeah, I will be…I just need to get up slowly."

The rest of the team finally made their way down to the mats. "Maybe now you won't be so quick to assume that a fourteen year old girl can't hurt you." Emily told him.

"Yeah, I guess." He responded sheepishly. Then he looked around and saw Penelope dashing out of the gymnasium. "Where's Garcia going?"

"To her office. She said something about posting the surveillance video to YouTube." Reid told him.

"Oh _hell _no!" Derek exclaimed, getting to his feet as quickly as he could. "Babygirl, come on! Have mercy!" He begged as he ran…well, limped to her office.

**********

Hotch was aware that his daughter was trying to talk to him. "Dad…dad…yo dad." She said, waving her hand in front of his face. He shook himself out of his reverie. "Sorry, I wasn't paying attention. What did you say?"

"Where were you just now?" She asked.

"I was thinking back to your first day of lessons with Derek." He said smiling.

"He still protects himself in that area when we spar." Jane grinned. "I'm worn out. Can we go home?"

"That depends, are you going to keep acting crazy when we get home?" Hotch asked her.

"No, actually I think I might take a nap and then get together with friends tonight if that's alright?" Jane asked.

"That's fine." He told her.

They both showered and changed and met at the car. As they drove home, Hotch was worried that Jane would start her nervous chatter again, but he looked over at her and saw that she was sound asleep.

**********

_I know I said I would have this chapter up a week ago, but life got in the way. Sorry! _

_I want to write about Jane's kidnapping experience, but it will be too long for a multi-chapter arc, so I will be doing a separate story for it. I hope to update both regularly, but again, I have TONS of papers due before now and November 1, so I might not update as regularly as I would like. _

_ Let me know if there is a particular story arc you would like to see written here about Hotch and Jane and I will try my best._

_Reviews? Please?  
_


	14. Chapter 14: It's a Female Thing

Disclaimer: Criminal Minds is owned by CBS. I own nothing but my imagination.

A Different Kind of Life-Chapter 14

It's a Female Thing

_**Jane is 16 years old in this chapter**_

'Damn' Jane thought to herself. 'This would have to happen today of all days.' Jane was in the bathroom, she had a severe stomach virus and she had spent so much time in there over the past few days that she was contemplating bringing in her pillow and blanket. She had been using the toilet yet again when she saw that she had gotten her period… it two weeks early and she knew that she was out of supplies, in fact she knew she had one tampon in her purse and that was it.

'Crap, what am I going to do?' She thought. She had feminine supplies on her personal shopping list, but school projects and this virus had derailed her trip to Target, not to mention the fact that her illness had caused her period to arrive early.

'I will just have to run to Target tonight.' She decided. In order to do that, she knew she would have to convince her father that she was better. 'Good luck with that,' she told herself. Under normal circumstances her father was overprotective; when she was sick his protective streak went into overdrive. She knew the chances of her father letting her out of the house in the next three days much less tonight were slim to none, but she still had to try.

Jane washed her face, brushed her hair and teeth and got dressed in jeans and a sweatshirt. She added some blush to her face so she didn't look so deathly pale. She looked in the mirror and thought 'not bad' although she was afraid that the sheen of sweat from her fever might give her away. She wiped her face and went out into the living room.

Hotch was sitting on the sofa watching _The Simpsons_ and for the first time in a long time he didn't have a case file in his lap. He looked up when Jane entered the room, she looked terrible. He wondered why she was fully dressed; she hadn't gotten out of her pajamas in the last two days.

"Um, I just need to run to Target for a few things. I'll be back in half an hour or so." Jane said, grabbing her keys from the coffee table.

Hotch just stared at her. "What are you talking about? Has the fever made you crazy? Do you really think I'm going to let you go out like this? You can barely stand upright for god's sake."

"It will just be for a little while dad, I'll be fine." Jane was anything but fine; in fact her stomach was roiling even as she was trying to convince her dad that she was OK.

"There is no way you are leaving this house tonight, Jane. You look terrible! I can tell you still have a fever by the way you are sweating, you are deathly pale and you've been practically living in the bathroom for the last two days." He paused to look at her more in-depth. "What could possibly be so important for you to get that you would go out like this?"

Jane looked at the floor and took a deep breath. "This stupid flu bug has messed up my cycle and I got my period today and I don't have any supplies, I was going to pick them up this week, so I need to go out for a few minutes to get them." Jane spoke very fast and was turning red.

Hotch processed what Jane had told him. "Oh." He said flatly, this was a problem. He thought about the situation at hand and was contemplating actually letting her go out when suddenly her eyes got big; she clamped her hand over her mouth and went running for the bathroom.

He followed her to the bathroom and was about to go in when he heard her heaving. Hotch had seen many awful things on the job and was able to deal with it, but he couldn't stomach it when someone threw up. He was what Jane called a 'sympathetic puker.' He took a deep breath and willed himself to go into the bathroom, that was his daughter and she was sick; she needed someone to comfort her.

Jane had her head in the toilet when she heard her father enter the bathroom. A moment later she felt him rubbing her back as she lost the juice she had drunk ten minutes ago. She finally finished being sick, got up (with her dad's help) and rinsed her mouth. She then headed back to the living room and picked up her keys.

"Well now that I've gotten rid of the juice I drank, I've got about a forty-five minute window before something else happens; I only need half an hour." Jane said to Hotch who had followed her into the living room.

"Sweetie, I can't possibly let you go out like this. You're sick; you're burning up with fever and from the way you were walking, I know you're dizzy as well. Plus you could infect everyone in the store." Hotch was adamant.

"You don't understand, I _need_ these supplies. I can get there and back-" She was interrupted by her dad.

"I'll go out and get them for you." He told her.

"You?!" Jane asked in surprise. "Really? But you won't know what to get."

"Jane, I am an educated person with advanced degrees and I work in one of the most difficult departments in the FBI. I'm sure if you tell me what you need, I can figure it out and get it for you." Hotch said, a bit sarcastically. 'How hard could it be?' He thought to himself.

"Um, ok…I need a pack of thin _Always_, make sure they are the super ones with wings. Do you want me to write this down?" Jane was turning red again.

"Nope, I think I've got it. Thin _Always_, super with wings. Will you be alright by yourself while I'm gone?" He asked her.

"I should be OK, I think I'm going to take a shower."

"Don't make the shower too hot, you don't want to make your fever worse." Hotch warned her.

"I won't…and thanks dad." Jane knew this was a big thing for him…it was a big thing for any guy to do.

**********

Hotch made his way to the local Target. He really didn't want to do this, but he couldn't allow his sick daughter to go out. He realized that so far he had lucked out in the "girl stuff" department with Jane; Haley had been alive to give Jane the early sex talk and the talk about her 'changing body' and she had been staying with Garcia when she had gotten her first period. Hotch realized that he still needed to have a more in-depth discussion about sex with her, but he knew that could wait a little longer. This was really the first time he had deal with any 'female issues' of Jane's.

He got to Target, parked his car and walked in. He realized that he didn't know where the feminine items were, but there was no way he was going to ask anyone where it was. He guessed that it would be near the make-up and other mainly female items, he wasn't wrong.

He found the aisle he was looking for and stood in the middle of it looking at the shelves in wonder and confusion, there were so many choices! He spent a few minutes just staring at the supplies on the shelves, wondering where to even begin. He found a package that said _Always _on it, but then the package next to it said _comparable to Always_. Which one should he get? There were numerous packages that said super and thin and wings, but he wasn't sure if it was the right brand. It was like all of the colors on the shelves and all of the choices had made him suddenly go stupid! He stood there for another few minutes, examining different packages and slowly turning red with embarrassment when he looked down at the end of the aisle to see a couple of teenage girls laughing at him. Screw this! He went back to the entrance and got a cart, went back to aisle 8A and started loading the cart up. Hotch knew from Haley that women were loyal to their brand and types of products and he would rather get way too many supplies for Jane rather than the wrong kind. He put one of just about each package in the cart and hoped that one of them was what Jane wanted and made his way to the front of the store.

Thankfully the lines weren't long since he had gotten a couple of weird looks with his cart full of feminine products. When he got to the front of the line the cashier was a sweet, middle aged lady. She looked at him sympathetically.

"Doing some shopping for your wife?" She asked him.

"My sixteen year old daughter actually, she's home sick with the flu." He explained.

"Aw, you're a good dad to be doing this for her. Let me guess, she told you what to get, but you couldn't figure it out once you got here?"

"That's right, I figured better safe than sorry, which is why I have a cart full of items." He smiled.

His smile didn't last long once he got the total bill, it was well over a hundred dollars! He had no idea these products were so expensive and he made a mental note to increase Jane's allowance so he could help her pay for them.

**********

As soon as her father left, Jane took her shower. 'Well that couldn't have been more embarrassing,' she thought as she stood under the lukewarm water. She couldn't believe that she had to talk to her dad about her period! This was one of those times that she really missed her mom.

She stepped out of the shower twenty minutes later and got into bed. It was only nine o'clock, but she was feeling really tired and sick. She dozed for a little while and then woke up when she heard thunder. She looked at the clock and saw that it was nine-thirty and she wondered what was taking her dad so long at the store. Just as she was thinking that, she heard his car pull into the garage and minutes later there was a knock on her door.

"Jane, are you asleep?" Her dad asked.

Jane sat up in bed and turned on her bedside light. "I'm awake dad, you can come in."

Hotch came in bearing four shopping bags full of feminine products. "Jeez dad, I only needed one box! Did you buy out the store?" Jane was shocked by how much he had gotten, she didn't know where she was going to keep it all.

"Pretty much. I know you explained what you needed, but when I got there all of the products started confusing me and I couldn't figure out what to get. I thought if I got a bunch of them, chances are the product you want will be in here." He told her, sheepishly.

He set the bags down by her closet door and took a good look at her. She was both pale and bright with fever at the same time and she looked miserable.

"How are you feeling, sweetie? Is your period making things worse?" He asked her. He didn't really want to discuss her period with her, but he wanted her to feel comfortable talking to him about anything. Plus he wanted to make sure she was really all right.

"Well, I haven't gotten sick since you left, but the cramps aren't helping any." She told him.

"Your mom used to take ibuprofen for her cramps. Do you want me to get you some?" He asked her.

"I'm way ahead of you, I took some just after you left." Jane could feel herself blushing, this whole conversation she was having with her dad was surreal.

Hotch saw Jane's reaction and knew that he had to say something. "Jane, I know this has been embarrassing for you, believe me it hasn't been a picnic in the park for me either, but I'm your father and I want you to know that you can talk to me about _anything_, even girl stuff, OK?"

"Ok dad." Jane said with a small smile. "All I really want to do now is go to bed."

"Well don't let me stop you." Hotch said as he helped her lay down in her bed.

"I'm going to work from home tomorrow so I can take care of you and if you are still sick on Tuesday, Penelope said she would stay with you, OK?" He told her this as he was tucking her in. He normally didn't tuck her in anymore, but she looked so pathetic and sick tonight and he just couldn't resist. He knew that she was sicker than she let on when she didn't fight him on it.

"That's fine. Goodnight dad." Jane said as Hotch turned off her bedside lamp.

"Goodnight, feel better sweetie." He said as he gently shut the door behind him.

**

_Of course my muse has hit me while I'm supposed to be writing papers for school. Oh well, that's what all-nighters are for. _

_I wrote this chapter because I figured as a single father of a daughter, Hotch was eventually going to run into a situation like this. It made me laugh to imagine a big, bad profiler being intimidated by the feminine product aisle. I know guys who run into burning buildings for a living, yet when they have to pick up tampons for their wives or daughters, they are struck stupid and are cowards about doing it._

_Reviews are appreciated!  
_


	15. Chapter 15: Trick or Treat

Disclaimer: Criminal Minds is owned by CBS. I own nothing but my imagination.

A Different Kind of Life-Chapter 15

Trick or Treat

_**Jane is 16 years old in this chapter. It takes place about a month after their big drunk driver argument**_

Jane was busy working in the kitchen. It was almost 700pm; she knew her dad would be home soon and she wanted to have dinner finished by the time he got home. She was making meatloaf with mashed potatoes and fresh asparagus, which wasn't difficult to make but it was time consuming. Out of all three of those dishes there was only one she liked, the mashed potatoes, but she had a HUGE favor to ask of her dad, so she was making his favorite meal.

She heard her dad pull into the driveway and looked at the oven. Perfect! The meatloaf had ten more minutes left to bake and the potatoes and asparagus were done and being kept warm.

When Hotch entered the house a few minutes later, the first thing that hit him were the wonderful smells coming from the kitchen. "Hi sweetie," he said to Jane as he came into the kitchen. "What's for dinner, because whatever it is, it smells great."

"Hi dad," she said cheerily, "I'm making meatloaf, asparagus and mashed potatoes. It will be ready in about ten minutes."

Hotch was confused, "But you don't like any of those foods, except for the potatoes. You should have made something we could both enjoy."

"God dad, it's not like I _hate_ meatloaf, it's just not my favorite food in the world." That was a bald-faced lie, Jane _did_ hate meatloaf, in fact she detested it. The smell alone was enough to make her gag and she would rather eat rat poison than asparagus. Hotch knew this and he narrowed his eyes at her slightly.

"Jane, the last time we had meatloaf, which your uncle Sean made since you refuse to make it, you had to leave the house because you hated it that much. What gives?" He asked her.

"_Nothing_ gives, God! We had the ingredients for the dinner and I thought I would be nice and make it for you. If I had known I would have faced an inquisition, I would have made sloppy joe's instead!" Jane knew she should watch it, she didn't want to piss off her father before she could ask him for the favor.

"Ok," Hotch said suspiciously, "I'm going to go change before dinner." He turned and went up the stairs.

**********

Forty-five minutes later, Hotch knew that Jane must need something enormous from him. She had choked down half of a piece of meatloaf and two asparagus stalks and she had been jumpy all during dinner. It didn't take a profiler to see that she was nervous as hell. Hotch found the whole thing amusing, but he finally took pity on Jane.

"Ok Jane, what's up? What do you need?" He asked her.

She was about to deny needing anything, but she knew that since her dad was a world class profiler and all that, he probably figured out early on that she was buttering him up. Also, the fact remained that she _was_ looking for a favor from him.

Jane took a deep breath and started speaking rapidly as she always did when she was nervous.

"I was invited to a Halloween party on Saturday and I really, really, _really_ want to go." Jane said.

"Ok," Hotch said slowly, "there must be more to the story, otherwise you wouldn't have gone to all of this trouble and you wouldn't be so nervous."

"That's the thing," Jane told him, "the party is being given by a kid you don't know and you don't know his parents. It's at a house in the city that you've never been to and there are going to be a lot of kids there that you don't know."

"Are the parents going to be there?" Hotch asked her.

Jane really wanted to say yes, but she couldn't lie to him. They had just gotten into a big fight about a month ago and when they made up, her dad told her he trusted her. She didn't want to blow that trust by lying to him.

"Probably not," Jane admitted. She saw her father's eyes turn hard and she knew that she had almost no chance of being allowed to go to the party, but she had to keep trying. "This is going to be the party of the year dad, I HAVE to be there. Please?"

"Are you going to know any of the kids there? Is Mel going?" Melody Ventner was their next door neighbor and had been Jane's best friend since they were both five years old.

Jane closed her eyes, this would be the final nail in the coffin for the party. "No, Mel isn't going to be at the party; her family is going out of town this weekend, but Andy will be there." Andy was Jane's boyfriend, and while they had been friends for over a year, they had been dating for less than four weeks.

"So let me get this straight; you want me to let you go to a party full of kids who you don't know at a strange house, thrown by a kid whose family I don't know without any adult supervision. Since there won't be any supervision I'm assuming there will probably be drugs and alcohol, not to mention sex, at this party. Am I right? Am I summing this all up correctly?" Hotch asked her, a bit sarcastically.

"You're right," she said glumly, but then brightened when she remembered Andy. "But dad, you're forgetting that Andy will be there with me."

"Ah yes, I'm supposed to be reassured by the fact that your boyfriend of four weeks, who I barely know, will be driving you with his newly acquired driver's license. That's supposed to be helping, right?" Hotch asked her.

"Um, yes…I guess so." Jane replied.

Hotch closed his eyes for a minute in order to think. When he did that, Jane knew that there was no way her dad was going to let her go to this party, he was probably just looking for a way to let her down easy. That's why she was so surprised when her father said what he said next.

"OK." Hotch said.

"What?" Jane asked, shocked. She must have misheard him, he was having a stroke, the world was ending. A thousand different explanations for his answer raced through her head while she waited for her dad to repeat himself.

"OK," Hotch said again, "you can go to the party."

"Really?" Jane all but whispered, now wondering if _she_ was the one having a stroke.

"Yes, _really_," Hotch said with a smile.

"Will I be pushing my luck to ask why you're letting me go?" Jane asked, a little hesitantly.

He looked at her. "I sat in this room just over a month ago and told you that I trusted you and you have given me nothing to doubt that trust, in fact you proved it to me just now."

"Seriously?" Jane asked.

"Yes," he told her, "you could have lied and told me that the parents are going to be there, or that you know the kids who are going to be there, but you didn't. You were honest about the possibility of drugs and alcohol when you had to know that the answers you gave me would most likely get you an answer of no from me, yet you told me about them anyway." Hotch looked right at her, "but most importantly, on the night of the party you could have told me that you were going to the movies or something and then gone to this party, but you didn't, you were honest with me and I respect that."

"Wow, thanks dad," Jane said.

Hotch continued, "I also realize that you are growing up and you need more freedom to make your own decisions, good or bad, and if you think you can handle this party then it's your choice."

Jane didn't know what to say, she had expected a knock-down, drag out argument with her father that would have ended with her in tears and possibly grounded.

"I really appreciate your faith in me, dad." Jane said.

"Well, I appreciate being able to trust you, sweetie." Hotch told her.

**********

On Saturday, Hotch went into the office to work for a while, but he was careful to make it home before Jane left for the party. He was nervous about letting her go, but he had been honest when he told her the things he did about trusting her.

He walked through the front door and was met by Garcia running down the stairs. "Thank god, it's only you!" She said.

"Well thanks Penelope, I'm glad to see you too," Hotch said dryly. He knew that Penelope had come over that afternoon to help Jane with her costume and makeup.

"Sorry Hotch, that's not what I meant," she told him and then turned to face up the stairs. "It's just your dad Jane," Penelope yelled up the stairs.

"Thank God it's only him, is he trying to give me a heart attack?" Jane yelled back.

"Jesus, should I leave or something? I feel so welcome in my own home," Hotch said.

"Sorry, it's just that we thought Andy was early and Jane is not quite ready yet, in fact she's changing into her costume right now." Andy couldn't get his family's car for the night so he was taking the Metro to the house and then Jane was going to drive them both to the party.

"What did she finally decide to go as?" He asked her.

"A witch," Penelope responded.

"Again?" Jane had gone as a witch the previous year and she had the cutest costume. It was hard to make a witch look both innocent and sweet, but Jane and her costume had pulled it off.

"Um, yes…just like last year." Garcia said, not looking at him.

"What aren't you telling me Penelope?" Hotch asked.

Before Garcia could answer him, Jane came down the stairs in her costume. Hotch was shocked, Jane and Penelope had obviously altered the costume. For one thing, it was _much_ shorter than it had been last year and they had made the hem uneven, almost ratty. The costume also clung to Jane in places that it hadn't the previous year. Finally, they had plunged the neckline so that it was much more low-cut…god, his daughter was showing actual cleavage! The make-up was also different. Last year it had been typical, cartoonish witch makeup but now it was much more sultry. He didn't want to say that his daughter looked slutty, because she didn't, but she was close!

"What happened to your costume? It didn't look like that last year!" Hotch sputtered.

Jane either didn't hear his tone, or she chose to ignore it. "Yeah, no kidding, I looked like Holly Hobbie in that thing! Thank god I've grown out since then." She said.

"But you were so adorable!" Hotch exclaimed.

"Yeah, I'm not really going for adorable this year, dad." Jane told him.

"No kidding! And it's not just that you've grown out since last year, Jane. You and Penelope obviously altered the costume. You look like a…like a…-" He couldn't come up with the word to describe her.

"Like a what?!" Jane asked, offended. Exactly what did her father think she looked like?

Penelope stepped in, "You look like a normal, red-blooded, American sixteen year old girl who is looking forward to a Halloween party. Your father is just not good with compliments. What he meant to say was 'Your costume looks great, sweetie, now go and have a great time at your party.'"

"Really, is that what you meant to say dad?" Jane asked accusingly.

Hotch saw the pissed off expression on Garcia's face and the anger flashing in Jane's eyes and he knew this was an argument he wouldn't win, his little girl was going to go out in that tarted up witch's costume whether he liked it or not; Garcia would make sure of that.

"That's exactly what I meant," he said, not very convincingly. Thankfully he was saved by the bell.

"That must be Andy." Jane said, going to get her keys and purse. While she did that, Hotch opened the door to let Andy in, mentally groaning as he did so. Andy was dressed as a vampire, but of course it wasn't a tame, normal looking vampire with fangs and a cheesy cape…no, it was the equivalent of Jane's costume, only for a male vampire. Didn't kids dress up as ghosts and superman anymore?

"Good evening, Andy." Hotch said, slipping into 'Agent Hotchner' mode.

"Hello sir," Andy said, shaking Hotch's hand.

"Andy! How's it going?" Garcia said, giving him a hug.

"Hi Penelope, I cleaned my computer's hard drive with that program you wrote for me and it is working much faster now. Thank you so much." Andy told her.

"No problem, hon." Penelope told him, but he wasn't paying attention to her because Jane had just walked into the room.

"You look awesome Jane!" He told her.

"Thanks! You cleaned up pretty well yourself." She said, automatically going to give him a kiss but she stopped about three feet away from Andy when she saw the look in her father's eyes. Thankfully she was saved by Garcia, who wanted a bunch of pictures. Jane thought she would be blind from the flashes by the time she finally put the camera down.

"We'd better get going," Jane said, wanting to get out of the house before her father changed his mind.

"Do I have the address and phone number for the party?" Hotch asked her.

"Yes dad, I put it in your cell phone." She told him.

"Ok...be home by eleven." He told her.

"Dad! It's seven-thirty now and we won't make it there until eight!"

"Fine, midnight," he said, seeing the angry looks that Garcia was throwing him.

"Thanks dad!" Jane said, kissing his cheek as she left the house with Andy.

Hotch slowly shut the door behind her. "Tell me I didn't make a huge mistake in letting her go."

"You didn't, Hotch. I know this is scary for you, but Jane needs to be able to do crazy things like this. It's part of being a teenager. And I know you think her costume is a bit trashy, but trust me, it will be one of the tamest costumes at that party." She told him.

Hotch sighed, "What are your plans for tonight?"

She grinned, "Kevin and I are going to a Halloween party thrown by some friends. You?"

"I'm meeting up with Jason and Dave for drinks." He told her.

Penelope was gathering her things up. "Have fun with that."

"Have a good night, Penelope and thanks, I think, for helping Jane tonight." Hotch said, walking her to the door.

"Anytime Bossman, and don't worry, everything will be fine tonight with Jane." She said as she got into her car.

**********

_This is a two part story arc, part two should be up later today or tomorrow._

_I have a new story up called 'Every 40 Seconds.' If you haven't yet, you should check it out. It's rated M, but I probably could have rated it a T, but better safe than sorry._

_Reviews? Please?_


	16. Chapter 16: The Party's Over

Disclaimer: Criminal Minds is owned by CBS. I own nothing but my imagination.

A Different Kind of Life-Chapter 16

The Party's Over

_**Jane is 16 years old in this chapter, it is a continuation from Chapter 15**  
_

Hotch was at Dave's house in Little Creek watching a football game with both him and Jason, all three of them having decided that they didn't want to deal with the Halloween bar scene, when his cell phone rang. 'Jane Cell' flashed across the screen. 'That's odd,' Hotch thought, as he picked it up to answer it, 'it's only eleven.'

"Hi Jane, what's up?" He asked her, hearing laughing and loud music in the background.

"Dad?" She asked.

"I'm here Jane, what's up?"

"Dad? Hang on," Hotch heard Jane set the phone down and then heard her yell, "Ssshhhh! It's my dad on the phone!" Then Hotch listened to his daughter laugh hysterically for a minute before picking up the cell phone again. He had a pretty good idea as to what was happening with his daughter, but he didn't want to jump to any conclusions.

"Dad, are you there?" Jane said.

"I'm here Jane, what's the matter?" Hotch asked again, ignoring the questioning looks from Dave and Jason.

"Um, I need you to pick me up from the party." She said, slurring her words a little.

"Why Jane, is your car not starting?" He asked, still wanting to give her the benefit of the doubt.

"Um, no…I've had too much to drink tonight. I can't drive." She admitted, a little more sober now. Even drunk, Jane knew she was in deep shit with her father.

Hotch let out a deep breath. "I'll be there in twenty minutes, wait for me out front with Andy."

He hung up the phone and turned to face his friends, "Well if you guys will excuse me, I have to go pick up my drunk, sixteen year old daughter from a party that she never should have been at in the first place." Hotch grabbed his keys and his jacket and was about to head out the door when he heard Dave and Jason behind him.

"Wait up Hotch, we're coming with you." Jason said, putting on his own jacket.

"Why? I can handle this guys, I'm not going to kill her…well at least not tonight."

"You're going to need someone to drive Jane's car, unless you would like to leave it parked on the street in the city? This way Dave and I can bring Jane's car back to Dave's place where it is less likely to be stolen, towed or vandalized." Jason told him.

"Besides, you may need help getting Jane out of there." Dave said, with a smirk.

"Fine, the more the merrier I guess." Hotch said, going out the front door.

**********

Nineteen minutes later, the car full of profilers was pulling up to a large mansion in the city. They all wondered how the party had gone this long without the local cops being called. The house itself looked packed to the gills with kids and there were costumed teenagers spilling out of every entrance. Hotch could see a keg on the front lawn and bottles of other hard liquor on the porch steps. Plus, the music could be heard from two blocks away. Either the neighbors were _very_ tolerant, or they were used to wild teenage parties around here.

Once Hotch stopped the car, the three men got out of the car and just looked around for a minute, surveying the scene in front of them. 'Garcia was right,' Hotch thought, 'Jane's costume _is_ the tamest one here.' Hotch could see a large group of girls dancing to the music that was pouring out of the house. They were dressed in orange and black pumpkin costumes and they looked really trashy.

There were probably fifty kids on the front lawn, dancing and drinking, and Hotch could smell pot smoke all over. He groaned to himself, wondering how he could have made such a monumentally stupid mistake as to let Jane come to this party when he spotted Jane's boyfriend Andy on the front lawn. He was standing alone, glaring at the group of orange and black costumed girls.

Dave and Jason stayed by the car while Hotch approached Andy. "Andy." He said firmly, standing directly behind the teenage boy.

Andy spun around, "Mr. Hotchner, thank god! Maybe you can talk some sense into Jane." He said, relieved.

"What the hell happened here, Andrew? Hotch asked, almost accusingly. Dave and Jason took up position behind Hotch, partly to hear the exchange between the two and partly to intimidate the boy.

"I don't know sir! When we got to the party, I met up with some friends from the basketball team that Jane doesn't particularly like and she met up with some people she knows from the track team that I don't particularly like. We agreed to meet in the living room half an hour later because I didn't want to leave her alone at a strange party for very long." Andy paused, glancing at Hotch to see if he was going to kill him. When he saw that the FBI agent didn't look mad, at least not at him, he continued. "Forty-five minutes later, after I waited for Jane, I decided to go look for her. I found her in the kitchen doing shots with some kids from school that are acquaintances of both of ours. She also had a beer in her hand, and it didn't look like it was her first-"

"Have _you _been drinking?" Hotch interrupted him.

"No sir, especially not once I saw that Jane had been. I wanted to stay sober so that I could keep an eye on her since we don't really know many of the people at this party." Andy responded.

Hotch's attitude towards him softened, he was watching out for Jane. "What happened then, Andy?"

"I tried to get her to stop drinking, but she called me a stick in the mud and tossed back another shot. It was at that point that I took her by the hand and led her away from the kitchen. After that, it was like a normal party except that Jane was drunk. We watched the dancing for a little bit and then we joined in the dancing. After an hour or so, Jane and I went back to the kitchen so that I could get her some water to help sober her up. I let go of her hand and turned my back for a minute to get her a bottle of water and when I turned around again, she was gone. I looked around the house for her and finally found her out here, practically trying to drink her weight in beer."

"Where is she now, Andy?" Gideon asked.

"Dancing," he said, pointing at the group of orange and black clad girls. "After she called you, she said that if she was going to be busted for drinking, she was going to make sure that she was good and drunk. I don't know what she poured herself, but she's drinking a bunch of different kinds of hard liquor mixed together right now, even though I practically begged her to stop."

Hotch looked at the group of girls and sure enough, in the middle of all of them he could see a black dress and a pointy witch's hat. Not even thinking, Hotch strode over to the girls and pushed his way to Jane.

As liquored up as she was, Jane was still able to recognize the hand that was clamped on to her upper arm. "Hi Dad!" She said in a sing-song voice

"Jane Grace Hotchner, we are leaving!" Hotch ordered.

"Fine dad," Jane said in the same sing-song tone. As Hotch walked her away from the group of girls, Jane raised the cup of alcohol to her mouth and tried taking a drink, but Hotch intercepted and grabbed the cup away from her.

"You have had WAY more than enough of this, young lady!" Hotch looked in the cup, whatever she was drinking looked vile. He flung the cup full of alcohol on to the lawn as they arrived at the car.

"Andy!" Jane said brightly as she saw her boyfriend standing with Dave and Jason. She broke away from her father's grip, ran over to Andy, threw her arms around his neck and gave him a big sloppy kiss right on the mouth.

Andy looked terrified. While Dave and Jason seemed like they were amused, Hotch looked like he was about to breathe fire. The last thing Andy needed was Jane's FBI father angry at him. He disentangled himself from Jane's grip.

"Not now Jane, and not like this," he said softly, "you're drunk."

Hotch heard what Andy had said and he softened even more towards the boy, liking the fact that he didn't want to take advantage of Jane in her inebriated state. Contrary to what Andy thought, Hotch's anger was not directed towards him, it was directed towards his intoxicated daughter.

Hotch took Jane's arm again and directed her to the car. "Get in the car Jane." He said tightly.

"God dad, don't be such a stick in the mud. Have some fun!" Jane said breezily.

Dave, seeing the intensity of Hotch's anger go up another level, interceded and steered his goddaughter towards the car. "Jane sweetie, get in the car and shut up before your father kills you."

Jane, as drunk as she was, took a good look at her father's face and realized that he was _really_ mad. She got into the car and shut up.

Dave came back to the group. "I can't believe you let her out of the house in that costume, it is _beyond _trashy."

"Hey, I had both her and Garcia ganging up on me! What would you have done?" Hotch asked him defensively.

"Good point, there is no way I would have crossed Garcia." Dave admitted.

Hotch turned toward Andy, "Do you need a ride?"

"Yes sir, I do. I am sober, but I don't drive stick shift, which is why I couldn't drive Jane home." Andy responded.

"I'll drive Andy home in Jane's car Hotch," Gideon told him, "then I'll swing by your place and pick up Dave. That way Dave can help you with Jane, if need be."

"That's fine Jason." Hotch responded. "You both can take her car back to Dave's cabin and I'll be by to pick it up tomorrow."

He looked at Andy. "Andy, I don't want you to think I'm mad at you because I am not. Jane has a mind of her own and she made her own choices tonight. I know you were trying to look out for you and you think you failed, but you didn't. I'm grateful that my daughter has a boyfriend that will watch out for her like you do." Hotch put out his hand and Andy shook it.

"If it helps any, Jane didn't hesitate before calling you to pick her up, sir. She knew she couldn't drive and she didn't even consider driving drunk. She knew that by calling you, she was going to get into trouble and she knew you would be disappointed, but she said that it was better than risking her own and other people's lives out on the road." Andy told him.

Hotch considered this, "It does help Andy, thanks. On that note, don't expect to hear from Jane until school on Monday."

"No problem sir, I am not happy with Jane and the way she acted tonight and I don't really want to talk to her until Monday, at the earliest. I need some time to cool off before I talk to her." Andy replied.

With that, Andy and Jason walked towards Jane's car while Hotch and Dave turned to get into Hotch's car. Hotch got behind the wheel and Dave got into the passenger seat. Jane was in the back seat and she rolled down her window as they pulled away from the party. She stuck half of her body out the window.

"Bye slutty pumpkins, bye!" She yelled, waving at the group of girls who were still dancing. To Hotch's surprise, they waved back.

"Christ Jane, do you want to fall out of the car?! Get back inside!" Jane lowered her body back into the car and as soon as she did, Hotch used the front controls to raise her window and then used the child lock so she couldn't lower it again.

"Jane, what is a slutty pumpkin?" Dave asked, amused.

"They were, those girls. They were dressed in orange and black and did you see the strategically placed holes on their costumes?! Viola! Slutty pumpkins." Jane exclaimed, slurring her words.

Dave laughed outright and Hotch had to bite his lip to keep from laughing, he didn't want Jane to think he approved of her behavior.

The drive back to Aaron and Jane's house took about twenty-five minutes and in those twenty-five minutes, when they weren't pulling over so Jane could vomit, Dave and Hotch learned a lot about Jane; she was a chatty drunk. It turned out that alcohol was almost like a truth serum for Jane, she probably shared more about herself with Dave and Hotch in those twenty-five minutes than she had in her entire life. Her chatter was also funny at times and by the time they reached the house, both Dave and Hotch were laughing.

They got Jane into the house and Hotch helped her into bed, leaving her in her costume, since Garcia wasn't there to help her change. As soon as her head hit the pillow, Jane passed out. Hotch left the door to Jane's room open, in case she got sick and needed to bolt to the bathroom and went back downstairs.

He found Dave in the kitchen making coffee. "What, no fireworks tonight?"

Hotch took a mug down and filled it with the brew. "Not tonight, if I yell at her now she won't remember it in the morning. Besides, I'm not quite sure what I'm going to do."

"You are kind of stuck in a quandary," Dave said, also grabbing a cup of coffee. "On the one hand, she _was_ drinking and she made a shitty choice there, but on the other hand, we all did that when we were her age. Hell, if my old man came down on me every time I came home drunk from a party, I would probably still be grounded." Dave said with a grin.

"I hear you," Hotch agreed, except his father wouldn't have grounded him, he would have used him as a punching bag. "She also called me for a ride instead of trying to drive herself home, even though she knew it would get her in trouble. Part of me is proud of her for listening to me, Haley and Garcia over the years and the other part of me wants to yell, scream and ground her."

"What are you going to do?" Dave asked.

"I'm going to play it by ear. We are going to have a long talk tomorrow and we'll see how it goes." Hotch responded.

"Good luck with that." Dave told him, heading out the door when he heard Jason pull up out front. "Oh and Hotch? You'll be interested to know that while you were helping Jane into bed, the DC PD got an anonymous phone call from a concerned resident about a certain party where there were teenagers drinking and smoking pot."

Hotch grinned, "Thanks Dave."

Dave returned the smile, "Anytime."

**********

Jane woke up briefly at around 600am feeling like shit. Her head was pounding, her stomach was churning, and it tasted like something had died in her mouth. She vaguely remembered that someone had written down a hangover remedy and handed the recipe to her the previous night. She found it in her purse and went to her bathroom to get the necessary medicines involved. After she was done with the remedy, she changed from her costume into pj's and went back to sleep.

She woke up four hours later feeling much better; her headache was almost gone and her stomach felt fine, in fact she was hungry. As she got up from her bed the memories from the night before came crashing down on her and she laid back down again.

She couldn't believe she had gotten drunk, she was going to be in SO much trouble! Not only that, she knew she had blown her dad's trust in her and that he was going to be disappointed in her. That was the worst, knowing she had let her father down. She had a feeling that other than school, she wasn't going to be seeing the outside of her bedroom for a very long time.

Jane wanted to hide in her bedroom all day and not face her father's wrath and disappointment, but she knew she couldn't stay in there forever. She got up, showered, got dressed and made her way down the stairs. She got to the kitchen and found her father making breakfast, it was the only meal that he made well.

"Morning dad," She said softly.

"Morning Jane," Hotch replied, stiffly. Jane noticed his tone of voice, plus the fact that he called her by her given name and not sweetie. He was pissed and Jane wasn't really surprised. She still felt horribly guilty for ruining the trust he had shown her and she vowed to take whatever her dad gave her without getting mad in return.

"You're just in time, breakfast is ready. Would you like some?" He asked her, thinking that with the hangover she must have, she wouldn't want any. She surprised him when she grabbed a plate from the cabinet and started heaping it with bacon, eggs and potatoes.

"Yeah, I'd love some dad, I'm really hungry." She finished loading her plate and sat down at the table.

Hotch fixed his own plate and also sat down, looking at her suspiciously. "Why aren't you hung-over?" He asked her.

"Oh, I was but I woke up at six o'clock this morning and took a hangover remedy that someone gave me last night." She responded, digging into her food.

"Was it drugs?" Hotch asked her, "Did someone give you drugs to take for your hangover?"

Jane stopped, her fork halfway to her mouth, and glared at him. "How could you even _ask_ me that question?" She said to him, angrily. "The remedy was Advil, a multi-vitamin, lots of water and pretzels." 'So much for not getting mad at him,' she thought as she set her fork down loudly.

Hotch looked at her in disbelief, "How could I ask you that? How could I _not_ ask you that after last night? I let you go to a party because I trusted you to make good decisions, a trust that is now completely out the window, and I had to come and pick you up because you were drunk. I hear from Andy how you weren't listening to reason from him and I find you dancing with a bunch of slutty pumpkins and you ask me how I could think that you would do drugs? What the hell am I supposed to think, Jane? It's like I don't even know you right now!"

All of the anger went out of Jane and she started crying. "I know I blew it last night and I'm sorry! I didn't go to the party with the intention to drink, I swear I didn't! It's just that everyone always thinks I'm a narc and that I can't let loose and have fun and I just wanted a chance to be cool and it all blew up in my face! You're mad at me, Andy probably won't talk to me again and worst of all, I know I disappointed you and that you no longer trust me!" Jane practically wailed this last part.

Hotch just stared at his daughter, there were times he wondered if she was a born profiler as she seemed to know just about every way to get through his anger. Watching his daughter cry, he felt all of his fury melt and he genuinely felt sorry for his daughter. If it wasn't such a dangerous job, he would actively encourage his daughter to follow in his footsteps when she got older.

"Jane sweetie, you need to calm down. It's not that bad." Hotch said.

"But I let you down! You let me go to this party, which I know was HUGE for you to do and I blew it! You must hate me!" Jane said, still crying.

"Jane, what did I tell you a month ago about me hating you?" Hotch asked sternly.

Jane looked up at him, this was not a rhetorical question. "You said that there was nothing I could do that would make you stop loving me."

"That's right, I don't hate you, I love you." He said, trying to reassure her. "Did you screw up? Yes. Could you have made better decisions? God yes, but it's a part of growing up. Now you need to calm down so we can talk."

Jane took a couple of deep breaths and stopped crying. She felt a little better now that her dad wasn't as mad at her anymore. "Ok, I'm ready to talk."

"Good," Hotch said, "like I said, you made some bad decisions last night. The first bad decision was going to the party in the first place. You knew it had the potential to get out of control and you knew that you wouldn't know many people there. I don't think it's out of line to say that it was a bad decision. Agreed?"

"Agreed," Jane admitted.

"Your second bad decision was deciding not only to drink, but to drink excessively. I spoke with Andy last night Jane, and he was concerned about how much you were drinking. It's one thing to have a few drinks and get buzzed, but it's entirely different to drink until you are falling down drunk and you were close to that last night." Hotch told her, not adding that he had come home like that a few times when he was her age.

"I know, but it was like once I took that first shot, I couldn't say no to any others." Jane said, and then her dad's words sunk in. "You talked to Andy? How pissed is he?" She asked him, not sure if she wanted to hear the answer.

"He's pretty mad, Jane." Hotch admitted, "He said he would talk to you at school later this week, but right now he needs time to cool off."

"Damn," Jane said softly.

"Yeah, well, I think he'll come around." Hotch told her. "Back to your decisions. Your final poor decision was to give in to peer pressure. You said earlier that people think you're a narc? What do you mean by that."

Jane stared at him for a minute. "It's not real easy to have an FBI agent for a father, dad. All of the kids at school assume that I am a goody-two shoes who reports everything back to my father. Hardly any of the kids at school trust me because of this, because they think that if I don't report back to you I will report back to the principal and other teachers. The first thing I heard when I walked into the party last night was 'Who invited the narc?' I guess I wanted to prove that I wasn't a narc, that I could let loose and have a good time. Pretty stupid, huh?" Jane asked sheepishly.

Hotch was astounded, he had no idea this was going on with Jane at school. He honestly never thought that his career choice would impact her among her peers.

"Why didn't you ever tell me about this?" He asked her.

"What are you going to do dad, quit the FBI and become a bus driver or something?" Hotch snorted at that and Jane gave a small smile and continued. "There is nothing you _could _do. If I told you and you came in to talk to the principal or teachers then it would only prove that I am a narc. It usually doesn't bother me, but last night I went to that party with the illusion that I was finally being accepted and when I was called a narc it shattered that illusion and a little part of me snapped. I should have known better, the only reason I was invited to the party was because I helped the host with some science homework and he invited me just to be nice."

Hotch felt bad, "I'm sorry that my job has such an effect on you at school, sweetie. I wish there was something I could do to help you with that."

"Don't worry about it dad, I've been dealing with it for years and it has gotten easier, last night was just a bad night." Jane smiled, "I believe you were in the middle of listing all of the crappy choices I made last night."

"Right, well those three are the main ones." Hotch said. "But along with the bad decisions, you made one really, _really _good decision; you called me to pick you up instead of driving home drunk and I cannot tell you how proud I am of you for doing that."

"Really?" Jane whispered.

"Really." Hotch said firmly. "You had to know that you were going to get in trouble once I knew about the drinking, in fact Andy let me know that you _were _aware of the consequences and you called me anyway. That showed me that you have been listening over the years and it showed great maturity on your part. That helped you regain a lot of my trust and confidence."

"It wasn't even that hard of a decision for me to make, dad. I knew that if I drove drunk, I would be risking my life and everyone else's lives. I also remembered all of the times that you and mom and Penelope have warned me about the dangers of driving drunk. I didn't want to disrespect mom's memory by doing the one thing that she didn't want me to do." Jane told him.

"I know that sweetie, that's why I still think you're a good kid, you just had a crappy night last night." Hotch said.

"So where does that leave us?" Jane asked, knowing that her punishment was about to be handed down.

He looked at her, "While your call for a ride helped keep some of my trust in you intact, I still don't trust you as fully as I did before last night. You will find me managing your life a bit more until you regain that trust. You will need to check with me before making plans or going out and if I'm out of town, you will need to check with Garcia."

"Ok…" That didn't sound so bad.

Hotch continued, "You're also grounded until the end of next Sunday, I think that's the 8th. It's not going to be total lockdown though. I want you home by 400pm each day, I won't call you to check because I still have enough trust in you to know you'll be home by then, but if you're going to be late to go to the library or something, you will need to call and check with me. I'm not taking your car or the internet away and you still have TV privileges, you are just restricted to the house for a little over a week. Got it?"

"Got it." Jane said, with disappointment in her voice.

Hotch was surprised to hear the disappointment in her voice as he thought that he had given her a pretty light punishment, all things considered. He took into account her genuine remorse, the fact that she called for a ride, the grief she had been getting at school and the fact that she was a teenager and it's practically a rite of passage to get drunk at an unsupervised party.

"What?" He asked her.

She looked up, "What?"

"There was definite disappointment in your voice, would you like me to go back and re-tool your punishment?" He asked.

"No!" Jane said quickly, she knew she had gotten off lucky and she didn't want him to think that she was pissed about being grounded. "It's just that Penelope and I had plans to visit the Smithsonian on Saturday. They have an exhibit about computers that we both want to see and we were going to make a day of it in the city and it's the last weekend it will be at the Smithsonian."

'Shit,' Hotch thought, 'I'm grounding her from doing something educational.' Hotch always encouraged Jane to go to the many museums in Washington, he didn't want her to think that learning ended once she left the school building. He also didn't want to take away her girl's day with Garcia. Hotch knew that Jane needed a strong, positive female role model in her life and he couldn't have picked anyone better than Penelope.

Hotch thought for a minute. "OK, I have a counter-offer."

"Really?" Jane asked. Her father had never changed a punishment or renegotiated it once it was handed down.

"Yes. If you do all of the cooking and kitchen clean up this week, I will end your grounding at six o'clock on Friday night. I'm assuming you were planning to stay at Garcia's on Friday night and then go to the museum from there on Saturday?" Hotch asked her.

"I _was_ planning that, and I accept your counter offer." Jane said.

"Good, now go call Garcia. Dave told her about last night and she has called me three times looking for details. If you think I was bad, just wait until you talk to her." Hotch paused, seeing the look on Jane's face. "Dave also wants you to call him. It seems he wants to have a chat about proper Halloween costumes with his goddaughter. I'm also guessing that Jason will call you at some point today."

Jane looked horrified. "Um, could we renegotiate my punishment again? Could you ground me from the phone for two weeks along with everything else?"

Hotch laughed, "Hell no! Why do you think I_ didn't_ ground you from the phone in the first place? Do you think that I'm going to deal with all of that?"

"Thanks a lot dad," Jane said sarcastically, but with a smile.

Hotch watched her walk out of the kitchen with the phone at her ear. The last thing he heard was, "Calm down Pen, I wasn't that bad."

**********

_That's the end of the Halloween Party arc. I'm sorry, I know I promised to have it posted on Friday, but I was in a wedding this weekend and there was a lot more to do than I thought._

_The good news is that you get a huge chapter…the bad news is that I won't be posting again until Wednesday (11/4) at the earliest. I have a thirty page paper due on Tuesday and I have massive amounts of reading due for my class on Thursday. I might post to 'Every 40 Seconds' before Wednesday, but if I do it will be a short chapter._


	17. Chapter 17: What Happens in Vegas

Disclaimer: Criminal Minds is owned by CBS. I have no rights to the song _Last Name_ by Carrie Underwood. I own nothing but my imagination.

A Different Kind of Life-Chapter 17

What Happens in Vegas...

_**Jane is 20 years old in this chapter**_

Jane burst through the front door of the house. "There you are," Hotch said, coming out of his study. He was surprised that she was home so late, she was usually home from her classes by 700pm; it was now 815pm. "I kept dinner waiting for you." He said as she breezed through the living room, towards the stairs.

"Can't talk, gotta pack." She said, racing up the stairs towards her bedroom.

"Pack? Pack for what?" Hotch was confused, she hadn't mentioned that she was going anywhere tonight. He started up the stairs, "Where are you going?"

"Vegas," Jane called back to him from her room. She grabbed her duffel bag and started throwing clothes and shoes in the bag.

"What?!" Her dad asked her from the doorway to her room. "You're going to Vegas? When did this happen?"

Jane barely looked up from her packing as she answered him. "Some people from one of my study groups decided to take a trip there over this long weekend and they invited me to go along. We got really cheap last minute airfare, but I have to be at Regan National Airport by 9:15pm and they're picking me up in fifteen minutes, so I'm a little pressed for time here, dad." It was the Thursday after mid-terms and most Georgetown students had Friday and the following Monday off from classes.

Hotch was trying to catch up. "But why Vegas? You're only twenty years old, you won't be able to drink or gamble." Hotch observed Jane's body language; she wouldn't look at him and she began to look nervous. Then the light went on for Hotch, "But your age doesn't matter since you will be using a fake ID, right?" Of all of the crazy ideas his daughter had ever had, this had to be the craziest of them.

Jane didn't deny the usage of a fake ID; she just didn't answer her father at all. "This is a _really_ bad idea, Jane. I strongly urge you to reconsider this trip." He told her.

Jane finally looked up from her packing. "Look dad, I know you think this is a crazy idea, but didn't you ever do anything crazy when you were in college? I just want to have some fun and blow off some steam from mid-terms, that's all."

"Yeah, but Jane, there's no way I can let you go on this trip-" Jane interrupted him.

"_Let_ me go?! In case you forgot, dad, I'm an adult and I can make my own decisions." She could see that he wanted to interrupt her, but she kept going. "Remember when I moved back home last year and you told me that I was an adult and you wouldn't stand in the way of the decisions I made? Remember?"

"Yes, I remember, but I also remember reserving the right to give my input on the decisions, and I have to tell you Jane, this is a bad decision." Hotch said, angrily.

" I don't care!" Jane told him stubbornly. "I am not asking for your permission to go on this trip dad, I am telling you that I'm going. I have some money saved up from work and I am using that." Jane finished packing just as she heard a horn honk in the driveway.

"That's my ride. I'll be home Monday night!" Jane said, running down the stairs.

Hotch caught up with her. "At least text me when you get to Vegas so I know you arrived safely." He said, resigned to the fact that she would be taking this trip with or without his approval.

**********

'Ugh, what a weekend,' Jane thought as she flew home on Monday. The group that had gone out to Vegas had been bigger than she thought it would be, about fifteen of them flew out together, although many of them were flying back to Washington separately due to various flight schedules. While Jane had shared a room with her friends Jackie and Anne, some of the students with more money had gotten their own rooms. This was the cause of Jane's trouble. She thought back to Sunday night in Vegas.

_Last night I got served a little bit too much of that poison baby  
Last night I did things I'm not proud of  
And I got a little crazy  
Last night I met a guy on the dance floor  
And I let him call me baby_

_And I don't even know his last name  
Oh, my mama would be so ashamed  
It started off "Hey cutie, where ya from?"  
And then it turned in,  
"Oh no, what have I done?"  
And I don't even know his last name_

At around 1100pm, Jane met Marshal, a guy from Georgetown who had come on the trip, but was someone she didn't know. The two of them had started talking and drinking at one of the Vegas clubs and one thing led to another and soon they were leaving the club together.

_We left the club right around three o'clock in the morning…  
I had no clue what I was getting into  
So I blame it on the Cuervo  
Oh where did my manners go?_

Jane woke up Monday morning in a strange hotel room. She heard heavy breathing and saw Marshal passed out next to her on the bed. She was still fully clothed, as was he, but she had a wicked hangover. Not wanting to wake him and deal with the awkward questions, she got her shoes on quietly, grabbed her purse and left the room. It wasn't until she looked down at her hand that she realized that she may have made a giant mistake.

**********

Jane's plane landed at 900pm and she caught the Metro home. She was surprised when she got home and found the house empty. She texted her dad to let him know she was home and got a text in return letting her know that he would be working late. She was still hungover and couldn't stomach the thought of food, so she went up to her room and passed out for the night.

The next morning, Jane woke up at about 800am. She was grateful that her father left for work at 700am, she couldn't face his questions about the weekend. Living with a world class profiler had drawbacks; he could tell when she was lying usually before the lie even left her mouth. She knew she needed to talk to someone about the weekend, but it couldn't be her father. As she stood under the shower, she decided that she had to talk to Penelope.

An hour later, she parked in front of the FBI building in Quantico, got her visitor's pass from the front desk and made her way to the BAU. She prayed that she wouldn't run into her dad before she found Penelope and it turned out that god was listening to her as she arrived at Pen's lair without seeing anyone she knew.

Pen's door was open and when Jane walked in, she saw that Emily and JJ were in the office drinking coffee and talking to Garcia.

Garcia saw Jane, "Jane! What brings you here?" She asked.

"I _really_ need to talk to you, Pen." Jane told her.

Garcia missed the tone of Jane's voice. "Sure thing, sweets. We were all just commiserating about our crappy weekends. Emily, you were saying?"

"So anyway, I was supposed to go out with my mother, but of course she cancelled at the last minute, so I spent my weekend doing a fall cleaning." Emily told them.

"That sucks, but at least you didn't have to deal with a guy who didn't want to leave his laptop all weekend!" Penelope said, "I mean, I love online gaming just as much as the next girl but it's rare that we get a weekend off, and I wanted to do more than that…if you get my drift."

"We all get your drift, Pen, but I'll bet my weekend beats yours for crappiness." JJ said. "Will decided that since Henry doesn't have any siblings, he should have a dog. I spent my weekend chasing Will, Henry and a golden retriever puppy. Did I mention that the puppy isn't housebroken? Guess who got to clean up after it all weekend?"

"Ok, we have a new winner in the 'crappy weekend' competition." Garcia announced. "How about you Jane, how was your weekend?"

"Oh, I'm pretty sure that I have all of you beat in this competition!" Jane said in a panicky voice.

"Really? What happened with you this weekend?" Penelope asked her.

"I'm pretty sure I got married!" Jane said.

_Today I woke up thinkin' about Elvis somewhere in Vegas  
I'm not sure how I got here  
Or how this ring on my left hand just appeared out of nowhere  
They say what happens here stays here  
There's just one little problem...  
I don't even know __**my **__last name_

**********

_I was stuck for another chapter for this story and then I was driving to class and 'Last Name' by Carrie Underwood came on and inspired me. This arc will be at least two chapters. _

_Reviews?_


	18. Chapter 18: Doesn't Always Stay in Vegas

Disclaimer: Criminal Minds is owned by CBS. I own nothing but my imagination.

A Different Kind of Life-Chapter 18

...Doesn't Always Stay in Vegas

_**Jane is 20 years old in this chapter. This is a continuation from chapter 17**_

"You WHAT?!" All three heads in the room turned to stare at Jane. They were all shocked; Jane was a Hotchner for crying out loud! Hotchners did not do this type of thing; they were level-headed and responsible.

"I think I got married," Jane repeated.

"What do you mean 'you think?' Either you got married or you didn't." Emily said.

"Well, that's the thing…I got really drunk Sunday night and left the club with a guy I just met and when I woke up, Marshal, that is his name, Marshal was next to me on the bed and I was wearing this." Jane reached into her pocket and pulled out an imitation diamond ring. "I have vague memories of standing in front of an Elvis…"

"What did this Marshal say when you asked him about it the next morning?" JJ asked her.

"Um…I sort of snuck out of the hotel room without waking him." she said sheepishly.

Garcia just stared at her. "What were you thinking? Leaving the club with a strange guy? Do you _know _what could have happened to you?"

"You mean besides getting married?" As soon as she said it, Jane knew it was the wrong thing to say, Penelope was _pissed_! She was the closest thing to a mother that she had and right now she was firmly in that mother role.

"Really? You're _really_ going to make jokes right now, Jane? After you went on a drunken bender, hooked up with some strange guy-" Jane interrupted her.

"Hey, we didn't hook up!" She said loudly, offended that Garcia would think she would have sex with some random stranger.

"No, you just got _married_! That's ever so much better!" Garcia screeched.

Emily and JJ had closed Pen's office door right after Jane's announcement and now they were in a corner of the office watching the fight in front of them. It was rare that Pen and Jane fought, but when they did, it was something to watch.

"God Penelope, if I had known you were going to react like this, I never would have come here!" Jane yelled.

"Take a reality check, how did you THINK I would react?!" Garcia yelled back at her, " My twenty year old pseudo-daughter just told me that she may have gotten married in Vegas, but she was too drunk at the time to know for sure. I don't know about you Jane, but this is a proud moment for me." Garcia finished, sarcastically.

Wisely, Jane kept her mouth shut, not wanting to fuel Penelope's anger. She was hoping that if it turned out that she was married, Penelope would help her tell her father.

Jane and Penelope just stared at each other for a minute. Penelope finally sighed and said, "I'll run a check on marriage licenses, what's Marshal's last name?"

Jane blushed, "I don't know." She mumbled.

"Perfect!" Garcia screeched, "You don't even know your last name!"

"My _possible_ last name! We don't even know if I actually did get married." Jane said.

"Yes, that makes it better, Jane." Garcia said, turning to her computer. Two minutes later she turned to her and said, "Well Jane, it seems as though Sunday night you ceased to be Jane Hotchner and you became Jane Harrison. Congratulations on your wedding."

Jane's stomach sunk and she found it hard to breathe. "You mean I actually _did_ get married?" She whispered.

"Yup, it's all right here." Garcia said, and then she really looked at Jane. "Are you OK Jane? You don't look so good."

"I can't believe I actually got married." Jane said, feeling light-headed. "What am I going to do?"

JJ spoke up from the corner, "The first thing you should do is call the guy, Jane. He probably feels the same way you do."

Emily disagreed, "The first thing you need to do is tell Hotch. He's still a lawyer and he will know what needs to be done in order to get the marriage annulled."

"Are you crazy?" Jane screeched, hysterically. "Tell my _father_? That is the last thing I need to do. He will lose his shit if he hears about this." Jane turned to Garcia and desperately asked her, "What about Derek? He's a lawyer, will he help me?"

"And not tell your dad? Not a chance! I guarantee you the first thing Derek will do is tell Hotch, regardless of attorney/client privilege." Garcia told her.

"Jane, you need to tell your dad. No offense to Garcia here, but we all know that she can't keep a secret to save her life. Wouldn't it be better if you told him yourself? Do you really want him and Dave hearing about it through the grapevine?" Emily asked her.

Dave! Jane hadn't even thought about her godfather's reaction to all of this. Without a word, Jane grabbed her purse and started heading for the door.

"Where are you going?" JJ asked her.

"Me? I'm going to Mexico! I'm going to start a new life there as a fugitive." Jane said, not sure if she was joking or not.

Garcia's anger towards Jane had somewhat dissipated and she found herself snorting at Jane's plan. "Jane, you can't run from this. You need to tell your dad and get his help."

"Will you come with me?" Jane asked her.

Garcia openly laughed at her. "Oh Jane, that's a good one!" She said. "You, my dear, are the closest thing to a daughter that I will probably ever have and I would gladly take a bullet for you, but you are on your own for this one."

"Thanks a lot Penelope!" Jane said, although she didn't really blame her for not wanting to come along. Jane took a deep breath. "Is my father in his office?" She asked JJ and Emily.

"He is, and it's a fairly light day for him. He told me that he was just going to get caught up on some paperwork and consultations today." JJ told her. "If it helps any, he seems like he is in a good mood."

"Great," Jane muttered. She took another deep breath, opened Garcia's office door and headed for her dad's office with JJ, Emily and Garcia behind her. As they got to the bullpen, they met up with Derek and Reid.

"Little Hotch, how are you doing?" Derek said, giving her a hug.

"I'm doing great Derek," Jane said, without much conviction. Derek saw through her weak lie, but didn't press her on it, he knew he could get the dirt from Garcia after Jane left.

"Jane, what brings you here?" Spencer asked her.

"I need to see my dad about something." She said.

"Oh, well Strauss just left his office, so he's probably not in the best of moods right now." Spencer told her.

Jane looked at Garcia with a panicked look on her face. Penelope could tell that she was thinking about making a run for it.

"Go," she said sternly, pointing at Hotch's office. "Go now, or I'll get Rossi to come after you."

Jane paled, but she started up the stairs towards her dad's office. She looked like someone on the way to their own execution. Once she got to his office door she took a deep breath and knocked. Hearing her father tell her to come in, she entered and shut the door behind her.

Back in the bullpen, JJ, Emily, Spencer, Derek and Penelope all watched as Jane entered her father's office.

"Does someone want to tell me what in the hell that was all about?!" Derek asked.

The three women filled Derek and Spencer in on the details of Jane's weekend in Vegas.

"Holy shit!" Derek said. "I didn't think the girl had it in her to do something like that. She knows that Hotch is going to kill her, right?"

"Oh, she knows." Garcia told him.

Spencer reached for his phone, "I'll dial 9-1 and then when Jane tells Hotch, I'll dial 1 again." He said, only half kidding.

"Do you guys really think Hotch will take it that badly?" Emily asked.

"Either he'll kill her, or he'll have a stroke. And if Hotch doesn't kill her, Rossi will." JJ said.

"Shit, I forgot about Rossi!" Derek exclaimed. "Either way it's a good bet that someone will be leaving in a body bag today."

Everyone pondered that for a moment until loud shouting came from Hotch's office and broke the meditative silence.

"Here we go." Garcia said.

**********

Jane took a deep breath and knocked on her father's door. She heard "Come in" and slowly opened the door.

Hotch looked up from his paperwork. "Jane, this is a surprise," he said, Jane didn't often visit him at work.

"Hi dad," she said sheepishly, shutting the door behind her. Hotch saw this but figured she was worried that he was still mad at her. He wasn't really. Sure, he wished she would have listened to him before she left, but she was twenty years old and trying to assert her independence. Besides, he had done some crazy stuff in college.

"It's good to see you, sweetie." Hotch said, getting up to give her a hug. He sat back down behind his desk and gestured to a chair in front of it. "Have a seat." Jane sat, she would do anything to keep her father in a good mood.

"How was your weekend?" He asked her. Jane looked at the floor. "Jane, I want you to know that I'm not mad at you. College is the time to do wild things, god knows I pulled my fair share of crazy stunts in college. I wish you had discussed the trip with me before you left, but at least you made it back in one piece."

Hotch expected that his admission would help Jane relax, instead she seemed more nervous, if that was possible. Hotch narrowed his eyes; she didn't look nervous, she looked terrified.

"What is it Jane? Did something happen while you were in Vegas" He asked.

"Um, well…kinda…" Jane hemmed and hawed, looking at the floor.

"Tell me what happened, Jane." Hotch said, sternly.

Jane took a deep breath and looked up at her dad. "I got married."

There was a long stretch of silence and Jane started getting worried. It was like when a little kid fell down and skinned their knee, the longer the amount of time between the injury and the screaming, the worse the screaming would be.

"YOU DID WHAT?!" Hotch roared.

"Dad, look…I didn't plan to do this, it was just a drunken Vegas thing."

"THAT MAKES IT _SO_ MUCH BETTER, JANE! I'M GLAD TO HEAR IT WAS 'JUST A DRUNKEN VEGAS THING!'"

Hotch was still shouting at her and Jane was afraid that the throbbing vein above his temple would actually explode.

"Dad, you need to calm down-"

"CALM DOWN?! You honestly expect me to calm down after giving me news like this? WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU?! Did you TOTALLY lose all of your decision making skills?" He asked her. Jane stayed quiet, thinking it was a rhetorical question. It wasn't. "ANSWER ME!" Hotch yelled.

"I don't know what you want me to say here dad. Did I screw up? Yes-" Jane was interrupted by a knock on the door. The door opened and Jane knew she was dead.

"What the hell is going on in here, Hotch? I was talking to my editor on the phone with my door closed and _he _could hear you yelling." Dave noticed Jane in the room. "Hi honey, how are you doing?" He asked as he gave her a hug.

"Tell him Jane, tell Dave what you did. We'll see if he's able to stay calm like you think I should be." Hotch said, a little wildly.

Dave just looked at Jane, he knew it had to be big, he had never seen his friend so worked up.

Jane just stared at the floor. "Well…I…um…" Hotch didn't let her get the rest of it out.

"She got married, Dave. She was in Vegas and she got married to some guy she knew for all of about twenty minutes!" Hotch had the edge of hysteria in his voice.

"WHAT?!" Dave boomed.

"I knew him for longer than twenty minutes!" Jane said, indignantly.

Hotch fixed his death glare at her, "How long _did_ you know him for then?"

'Shit, I couldn't keep my mouth shut,' Jane thought. "I knew him for about three hours."

Hotch just looked at Dave, who had almost turned purple at this point.

"ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!" Dave yelled. She just stayed quiet.

Dave turned to Hotch, "Twenty years old or not Hotch, if you don't take her over your knee, I will. He told his friend.

"_EXCUSE _ME?!" Jane yelled.

Dave ignored her, "How could you let her go to Vegas?! She's still a KID for Christ's sake!"

"I am _not _a kid anymore, Dave, no matter how much you treat me like one!" She said loudly. Both men continued to ignore her.

"_LET _her? In case you haven't noticed Dave, your goddaughter is technically an adult and she sure as HELL has a mind of her own. What was I supposed to do, handcuff her to her bedroom door?" Hotch asked him.

"Yes, you do what you have to in order to keep her from making a HUGE mistake!" Dave thought the answer was obvious.

Jane hoped that Dave and her dad would argue enough that they just forgot about her.

Down in the bullpen, the argument in Hotch's office had attracted some listeners, one listener being Erin Strauss.

"What is going on up there?!" Strauss asked the rest of the team. They quickly filled her in about Jane's weekend in Vegas.

Strauss looked at Garcia. "Aren't you upset? You're closest to her, don't you want to go up there and scream at her?"

"I already did, ma'am, in my office." Penelope told her.

"Yes, well I haven't." Strauss said, stalking up to Hotch's office.

Back in Hotch's office, the yelling was still going strong.

"HOW COULD YOU BE SO STUPID?" Dave yelled at Jane.

Jane was getting tired of being yelled at. Yes, she made a mistake, but it wasn't like she killed someone.

"I don't know Dave, since you're the expert at getting married, why don't you tell me how someone could be so stupid as to mistakenly get married? Maybe get married, oh I don't know, _THREE TIMES_!"

Dave was almost apoplectic at this point, "HOW DARE-" he started yelling before he was interrupted by Hotch's door opening.

Jane looked towards the door and felt a moment of hope. Erin Strauss had just walked in and Jane hoped that she would be able to deflect some of the anger that was directed at her. That feeling of hope was extinguished as soon as Erin opened her mouth.

"Have you LOST YOUR MIND?" She yelled.

The three other occupants of the room stared at Strauss for a minute. Hotch and Dave couldn't believe she was on their side, she _never _yelled at Jane. Jane also couldn't believe that Strauss was on their side.

"You got married while drunk in Vegas?! Are you TRYING to live out the CHEAPEST CLICHÉ in the book?" Strauss practically screamed at her.

"Look Erin, I've already heard it from Penelope, Dave and my dad; I don't need to hear it from you right now." Jane said, angrily.

"You most certainly DO need to hear it from me right now, young lady! I thought we all raised you better than this!" Strauss shouted

"Jesus CHRIST!" Jane yelled, finally losing what little patience she had left. "Did I screw up? Yes. Should I have known better than to leave the club with a strange guy? Yes.-"

"Wait a minute, you were drunk and you left the club alone with a man you didn't know? DO YOU KNOW HOW STUPID THAT WAS?!" Hotch shouted.

"Yes, I DO! I've already had this discussion with Penelope, I don't need to hear it from you!" Jane yelled back and then took a deep breath.

"Look," she said with a calmer voice, "The only reason I told you about this is because I need your help getting my marriage annulled."

"YOU WERE GOING TO KEEP THIS FROM US?!" All three voices in the room yelled simultaneously.

'Shit,' Jane thought. "Um, no…of course not…it just came out wrong." That was a bald-faced lie and everyone knew it.

"I can't BELIEVE you were-" Dave's rant was interrupted by the ringing of Jane's cell phone.

She looked down at the screen and knew that the situation was about to go from bad to worse.

"I have to answer this," she said.

"You're going to take a phone call NOW? In the middle of all of this?" Her father asked, incredulously. "Whose call could be so important that you would take it now?"

Jane closed her eyes. "It's my husband."

**********

_One more chapter left in this arc. Reviews make me happy!  
_


	19. Chapter 19: Mrs Jane Harrison

Disclaimer: Criminal Minds is owned by CBS. I own nothing but my imagination.

A Different Kind of Life-Chapter 19

Mrs. Jane Harrison

_**Jane is 20 years old in this chapter. This is a continuation from chapters 17 & 18**_

* * *

Jane opened her eyes and saw that the word 'husband' had momentarily paralyzed everybody. "I'll be right back." Jane said as she stepped out of her father's office to take the call.

"Hello?" She answered her phone. She vaguely remembered Marshal programming his phone number into her cell phone at the club

"Jane? Is this Jane Hotchner?" The voice on the other end of the phone asked.

"It's actually Jane Harrison now." She said with a chuckle, "Hi Marshal."

"God Jane, I can't believe…do you remember anything about it?" Marshal said, relieved that Jane didn't sound upset.

"No, I had to have a friend search online to find our marriage license. You?" Jane asked him.

"No, it wasn't until I looked at my hand yesterday that I had an inkling of what we might have done. I just told my parents…let's just say they were less than thrilled. Yours?"

Jane laughed, "No, my dad was not happy, in fact you interrupted our 'discussion' about it just now. He's a lawyer and I'm going to see if he will help us get it annulled. I'm assuming that's what you want as well?"

Marshal gave a sigh of relief, "It _is_ what I want. My dad is a lawyer too; we should get the in-laws together tonight and talk about what needs to be done about this."

Jane smiled at the 'in-laws' term, it sounded so weird! "That's a great idea, why don't you and your parents come over to our place at around eight o'clock tonight? I'll make dessert and we can discuss our wedded bliss over it."

Marshal laughed, "That sounds great Jane, I'll see you then."

"I'll text you my address. Oh, and Marshal?"

"Yeah?" He answered back.

"My dad is an attorney, but his main profession is an FBI agent; he tracks down serial killers, so it might not be in your best interest to use the term 'in-laws' tonight as my dad will probably be armed." She told him.

Jane heard Marshal swallow and there was a long pause. Finally he said, "Thanks for the heads up, my lovely bride."

Jane laughed and disconnected the call. She took a deep breath before turning back towards her father's office. There were about a million things she would rather do than go back in there, but she knew that if she waited one of them would come out to get her and that would make it worse.

She entered the office and found it quieter than when she left it, although since she hadn't been in it, there was really no one there for them to yell at.

"Have a seat, Jane." Her father said, motioning towards one of the chairs in front of his desk. Strauss sat in the other one and Dave sat on the couch behind them, still glowering at Jane.

"Before you say anything, you should know that Marshal, that's my husband's name, Marshal is also surprised that we got married and he wants an annulment too." Jane said.

"Thank god!" Strauss exclaimed, with Dave and Hotch nodding in agreement.

Jane continued, "His father is also a lawyer and I've invited Marshal and his parents over to our house tonight for dessert so that we can all discuss this."

"Good." Hotch said, "Jane, before we can even know if you and your husband-" Hotch shuddered at that word "-are eligible for an annulment, I need to know a couple of things about your wedding."

"Shoot," she said.

"First, is it possible that you were married using your fake ID?" Hotch asked her.

"FAKE ID?!" Dave and Erin both shouted.

Hotch pinched the bridge of his nose. "One issue at a time everyone, let's focus on Jane's marriage right now; you can both kick her ass about the fake ID later on." Hotch was seriously contemplating kicking everyone out of his office.

"No, Penelope found my marriage license under my real name. My fake ID had a totally different name on it." Jane told him.

"Of course, that would have been too easy." Hotch muttered and then continued on to the next question. "Did you…did you and Marshal…consummate your marriage?" He asked her.

"What?!" Jane responded.

Strauss spoke up from next to her, "He means did you and Marshal have sex-"

"I _know_ what he meant, Erin!" Jane said. She looked at her father, "No, no we didn't…at least I don't _think_ we did…"

Dave piped up from his position on the sofa behind her. "How in the hell can you not know if you consummated your marriage?" He said, grumpily. "Either you had sex or you didn't; case closed."

Jane turned in her chair to face him, "Well I'm sorry Dave! I guess I haven't had as much experience with one night stands as you have!"

Dave jumped up. "What in the HELL is that supposed to mean?!"

Jane also stood up, "Come on Dave, I KNOW about your reputation! I'm not even in the FBI and I know that you're the reason for all of the anti-fraternization rules! Christ, I'm surprised you don't have to go to twelve step meetings!"

Hotch watched as the situation in his office spiraled out of control. As soon as Jane started talking about Rossi's reputation, Strauss had to cover a snort of laughter with a cough and she was barely trying to hide the grin on her face. If Dave noticed, it could possibly turn violent.

"You have a HELL of a lot of NERVE trying to turn this around on ME, young lady-" Dave began, but was cut off.

"That's it, everybody OUT!" Hotch yelled. "We are getting nowhere with this."

Everyone started to file out of the room, Jane included.

"_Not_ you, Jane." Hotch said.

'Damn, so close!' Jane thought as she sat back down in the chair. She noticed that Dave threw her a really nasty look as he left the office, so Jane gave one right back to him.

Once everyone had gone, Hotch sighed and thought for a moment. He didn't want to get more personal with his daughter than he had to, but he needed to know if she and her…husband…had slept together after their wedding.

"Jane, one of the deal breakers for an annulment is whether or not you consummated your marriage. If you and Marshal slept together, you won't qualify for one; you would need to file for a divorce instead. So I will ask you again, did you and Marshal have sex?"

Jane thought for a moment, "I really don't think we did, dad. When I woke up in his hotel room we were both on top of the bedspread and we were fully clothed."

"There weren't any…wrappers or…any other…items…on the floor...or nearby?" Hotch said, turning slightly red.

Jane was confused for a moment. "Oh, you mean condoms?" She asked, the light bulb going on in her head. "No there weren't, but there wouldn't be…I've been on the pill since I was seventeen."

Hotch was about to lecture his daughter on condom usage to prevent diseases when her words filtered through his brain. "You're on the pill?! You've been on it since you were a teenager?! Why the hell didn't I know about this?" He asked her, feeling his anger returning.

Jane closed her eyes, 'Shit, I just can't keep my big mouth shut today!' "I started taking the pill to regulate my period, dad."

Hotch looked at her skeptically. "Ok Jane, I'm going to spend today researching Nevada annulment laws, I'll see you at home tonight. Please make sure the house looks presentable for our guests tonight." Hotch turned back to some paperwork.

"I will dad…um, could I possibly ask you for another favor?" She knew she was pushing her luck.

Hotch looked up at her, unbelievingly. "What more could you possibly need, Jane?"

"Could you arrange it so Dave and Penelope are not at the meeting tonight?" Hotch looked thoughtful for a minute, so Jane pressed on. "You know Dave will not have calmed down by then, and both him and Pen together and pissed off is not going to accomplish anything."

Hotch agreed and told her that he would make sure they would know that they weren't invited to the meeting. She thanked him and headed towards the elevators. Unfortunately, she had to walk right by Dave's office and the bullpen to get to the elevators. As she was going she was going past his office, she heard Dave call out.

"We're not done here yet, Jane." He said gruffly, getting up from his desk.

"Yes, we are Dave. I don't really want to hear it from you right now," she said, walking towards the stairs.

Dave followed her, "I don't care what you do or do not want to hear, young lady-"

Jane stopped in the bullpen and turned around. "Look Dave, I am not about to go another round with you on your turf-" she waved her arms around, indicating the BAU headquarters-"with your allies waiting to help you rip me to shreds." With that, she pointed to Erin and Penelope who were standing next to each other. "I am going home to study, clean and prepare for the meeting with my husband and in-laws." That was petty on Jane's part, she knew that those words would push his buttons, and they did, but she continued on. "I think we both need to take a couple of days to cool down before we talk. Look for me then." She said, continuing on to the elevators.

Dave moved to follow her, he was not good with not getting his way, but Derek clamped his hand on the older man's upper arm.

"Let her go, Dave. We all heard how you guys ripped into her and she needs time to process. If you go after her now, you'll only make it worse." Derek told him.

Dave took Derek's advice and watched Jane step into the elevator.

**********

'That could have gone better,' Jane thought as she drove home from Quantico. It had been a banner morning; she found out she had definitely gotten married while drunk in Vegas, everyone who cared about her was super mad at her, she was questioned about her sex life and her dad found out she was on the pill. Yeah, she had definitely had better days.

She called her friend Mel to let her know what was going on and then she called a couple of her friends from the Vegas trip to ask them if they remembered anything about her wedding. They didn't, but they thought it was hilarious that the normally straight-laced Jane Hotchner (Harrison) had done something that crazy. As the word of her weekend spread among her friends, she was bombarded with phone calls all day.

She didn't even try going to class as she knew she wouldn't be able to concentrate. At around 400pm, she began making her famous Caramel Macchiato Cheesecake for dessert and she cleaned the house while it was in the oven.

Hotch came home at around 645pm and they ate dinner together. Jane had made some of his favorite foods hoping that a nice dinner would improve his mood towards her, but it didn't work, they ate dinner in a strained silence. As she was clearing the plates from the table, she asked the question that had been weighing on her mind.

"You're not going to kill him, are you?" She asked tentatively.

Hotch thought for a minute, "No, I'm not going to kill him. As much as I would love to blame him for this mess, you are just as much to blame."

"Thanks…I think." Jane said, "But I'll tell you dad, I would feel a lot better about this meeting if you would put your sidearm in the safe."

Hotch gave a small smile, "I will Jane. I'll be in my study working on some cases; let me know when they get here.

**********

*Ding-Dong*

Jane closed her laptop and went to answer the door. On her way to the door, her father stepped out of his study and followed behind her.

She opened the door to Marshal and his parents. Marshal looked nervous, he was not used to meeting FBI parents and he didn't know what to expect. His parents, on the other hand, looked slightly amused.

"Hello Marshal, Mr. and Mrs. Harrison. Please, won't you come in?" Jane said, feeling as nervous as Marshal looked. After the 'discussion' she'd had about her marriage this morning, she was anxious about how this meeting would go.

After the introductions were made, everyone took a seat at the dining room table. Jane served the cheesecake and coffee and they all got to know each other.

Jane and Hotch learned that Mr. Harrison had started out as a defense attorney, but moved to prosecution after Marshal was born because he wanted to make the world a better and safer place for his son. Jane knew that her dad and Mr. Harrison would get along. She learned that Mrs. Harrison was actually Dr. Harrison and she was an infectious disease specialist at Howard University Hospital. Finally, she discovered that like her, Marshal was a junior at Georgetown. He was working on a degree in political science and planned to attend law school.

Mr. and Dr. Harrison were impressed to find out that Hotch had been a prosecutor and now worked for the FBI in the BAU, and Dr. Harrison was interested to learn that Jane planned on attending medical school after graduating from Georgetown with a degree in biology.

Once they got to know each other, they discussed the situation that brought them all together. Mr. Harrison, Tom as he told them to call him, and Hotch discussed the best way to petition for the annulment. They were both in agreement that they had grounds for an annulment under the clause that they lacked understanding to consent because of their drunken state.

"We'll need proof that they were drunk when they got married. Did any of your friends witness the ceremony? " Tom asked Jane and Marshal.

"None of mine did, dad." Marshal told him.

"None of my friends were there either, sir." Jane said and then turned to her dad, "Do you think Garcia could get the security footage of the chapel?" She asked him.

"I'm sure she can." Hotch said.

"I'm sorry...Garcia?" Tom asked.

"She's my team's technical analyst and she can perform miracles when she wants to." Hotch told him. "She's also Jane's godmother and she will do anything for her, no matter how angry she is with her right now." Hotch continued as Jane looked sheepish.

"Jane, can I ask where your mother is?" Dr. Harrison, Margaret, asked.

"My mom died when I was twelve years old." Jane told her. "Garcia is not only my godmother, but she also used to take care of me when my father was called out of town. I am very close with her, as I am my godfather. He is also on my dad's team at the BAU."

"Why aren't they here tonight?" Tom asked.

Without thinking, Jane said the first thing that popped into her head, "Because I thought that three pissed off FBI agents, two of which are armed, would not be conducive to our discussion tonight." Jane was relieved when both of Marshal's parents laughed at that.

They went back to their discussion of Jane and Marshal's marriage and annulment. "I have some friends in Nevada, and I've been able to set up an annulment hearing for November 13."

"That's impressive, November 13 is only about three and half weeks away." Hotch said.

"Will we have to go back to Vegas for the hearing?" Jane asked. The last thing she wanted to do was go back there.

"No, we will go to the courthouse here in DC and teleconference with the judge in Las Vegas." Tom told her.

Everyone was relieved that the marriage would be annulled quickly and once the plans for the annulment hearing were discussed, the evening wound down and the Harrisons left.

Once they left, Hotch, still angry with Jane, went to his study to do some work while Jane went to her bedroom to study. She could tell that the next three weeks would be strained between her and her dad.

**********

_Sorry! I know I said this would be the last chapter, but this story arc took on a life of it's own. The good news is that the next chapter is the last one and it's already written. I'm polishing it up now and it should be up later tonight or early tomorrow._


	20. Chapter 20: Endings and Beginnings

Disclaimer: Criminal Minds is owned by CBS. I own nothing but my imagination.

A Different Kind of Life-Chapter 19

Endings and Beginnings

_**Jane is 20 years old in this chapter. This is a continuation from chapters 17, 18 & 19**_

_

* * *

  
_

The next three and a half weeks passed slowly for Jane. For the first two weeks, everyone remained mad at her. It was a weird feeling for Jane to have _everyone _that cared about her pissed at her; usually she fought with one or two of them, but never with all of them at the same time. Erin was the first one to warm back up to her. That might have had something to do with Jane giving Erin her fake ID and then watching as she cut it up in front of her.

Penelope and her dad finally warmed back up to her as well, although any time her marital status came up some of their anger re-ignited. Jane had become somewhat amused by the idea of being married, but Pen and Hotch _definitely_ did not share her amusement with the situation.

The only person who she was still not talking to was Dave. Jane felt bad about the tension between her and her godfather, she knew she had said some things she regretted but she was also angry at some of the things he said to her and with the way he had treated her like a child. It was weird though, not having talked to Dave for three weeks. Some people might think it was strange that she was so close to her godfather but when Dave took over the position (her previous godfather died when she was twelve and she barely knew him before that) it was on the condition that he would play an active role in her life. While they didn't talk to or see each other every day, they frequently communicated by email and they usually saw each other at least once a week. Jane wasn't sure how to make things right with Dave, but she wanted to because she wanted him back in her life.

Jane had also gotten to know her husband better over the past three weeks. It turned out they had a lot in common and they were planning to date once their annulment was finalized. They realized that they were doing their relationship backwards, but they both still wanted an annulment and they knew that if they started dating before it was finalized, it could possibly jeopardize it.

**********

Hotch had just arrived back in town from a case in Illinois and was returning some emails when his cell phone rang.

"Hotchner."

"Aaron?"

"This is Aaron." He responded, confused. The voice sounded familiar, but he couldn't place it.

"Hi Aaron, this is Mel…Mel Ventner."

"Mel! How are you? How's UVA?" Hotch asked, his voice much warmer. Mel was Jane's best friend and he had known her since she was five years old. She was currently attending the University of Virginia, which is why she hadn't gone on the ill-fated Vegas trip. Hotch knew that if she had gone, Jane never would have gotten married…or maybe she would have; Mel could be pretty crazy.

"UVA is tough, but I'm holding my own. You?" She asked.

"Other than helping my daughter get her tacky Vegas marriage annulled, I'm doing fine." Hotch told her.

Mel snorted, "That's why I'm calling you Aaron. I'm coming home for the weekend and I'm throwing Jane an annulment party after the hearing on Friday night. I wanted to invite you and have you spread the word to the rest of your team."

"A party? Really?" Aaron asked, somewhat annoyed. He knew that Jane was somewhat amused by her marriage and he thought that a party would reinforce that attitude in her. He wanted her to see that this was a serious situation that could have had life changing ramifications.

"Yes a party, she needs to put this behind her Aaron. I know that you think she's making this into a big joke, but it's her way of dealing with it. She's embarrassed by the whole thing and to cover her embarrassment, she's finding the humor in it."

"Well, I'm relieved to know that joking about it is her way of coping." Hotch said.

"Personally, I think it's great she was able to throw caution to the wind and do something like this. After she was kidnapped, did you ever think she would get to this point in her life?" Mel asked him.

"No, I didn't…thanks for putting it in perspective for me, Mel." Hotch said.

"Anytime, Aaron. Do me another favor?"

"What do you need?"

"Make sure Dave comes to the party. Jane is really feeling the strain between the two of them and they need to make up." She told him.

"I'll make sure he's there." Aaron promised, knowing that Dave was also feeling the tension between the two.

**********

Friday arrived and both families met at the courthouse, they had the last hearing of the day. The annulment hearing was pretty straight-forward; the judge asked Jane and Marshal questions about the events leading up to the marriage, he made sure they both understood that the annulment would not only end their marriage but legally it would be as if it had never happened. Once they both agreed that the annulment was what they wanted, the judge signed the paperwork and they were no longer married. The hearing only took a few hours from start to finish. Outside the courtroom, as her dad and the Harrisons were saying good-bye, Jane invited Marshal to her annulment party, which he promised to attend although he would be late.

Hotch and Jane left the courthouse and drove towards Buffalo Wild Wings which was where the annulment party was taking place. Mel knew the manager of the restaurant and he had given them the back room for free. Jane usually ate pretty healthily, but she had a weakness for boneless buffalo wings.

On the way to the restaurant, Jane broached the subject of Marshal with her dad.

"So Marshal…he's not a bad guy…" Jane said, hesitantly.

"No, I guess not." Hotch was wondering where the conversation was headed.

"Yeah, he's a good student, he has plans for the future and you know his parents are good people." Jane said.

"Right…"

Jane took a deep breath. "Marshal and I are going to start dating," she told him.

That was _not_ what Hotch had been expecting. Jane watched as he gripped the steering wheel tightly and then she watched as the vein above his temple began to pound. Hotch put his turn signal on, slowed down and pulled onto the shoulder of the road.

Once the car was stopped, he looked at his daughter. "I'm sorry, what did you say?" He said in a deadly calm voice. "I want to make sure I heard you correctly before I give you my opinion on the matter."

Jane was nervous and when she was nervous she talked fast. "Look dad, Marshal and I have gotten to know each other over these last three weeks and we have a lot in common and we get along really well together. I'm sure if this hadn't happened, if we had met under more normal circumstances, we would have hit it off and started dating. I know we're doing this backwards but we really like each other and we didn't want to start dating until now because we didn't want to jeopardize the annulment. _Please_ don't get angry at me over this! Dave is already not talking to me and things between you and I have been strained and I can't go back to that, but I don't want to give up Marshal." Jane stopped as her breath finally ran out. She took a deep breath and watched her dad's reaction, her hand on the door handle in case he got really mad.

Hotch thought about it for a moment and then said, almost nonchalantly, "OK Jane, you have my blessing on this, I'm not angry that you and Marshal are going to date."

Jane exhaled. "Really?"

"Really. You're right, Marshal seems like a pretty decent guy, we know that he comes from a good family and most importantly, I've seen that he treats you well. His treatment of you and your happiness is what's most important to me." Hotch said, as he pulled back onto the road.

**********

Dave was at a table in the back of the room at Buffalo Wild Wings nursing a scotch on the rocks when Mel sat down next to him. Jane and Aaron, having been held up both in traffic and by their discussion, hadn't arrived yet but about fifty of Jane's friends were there.

"Hi Mel, how's UVA?" Dave asked her. He knew Melody pretty well since she was Jane's best friend.

"UVA is going well Dave, how are you?" Mel asked, trying to gauge whether he was going to be an ass at the party.

"I have my drink and soon I'll have wings. Life is good." Dave responded, somewhat sarcastically.

"So are you going to be an asshole towards Jane tonight?" Mel asked him, getting right to the point.

"I'm sorry?!" Dave asked, astounded that this girl would talk to him like that.

"Maybe that's what you should be saying to Jane." She told him.

"You have no idea what you're talking about, Mel. You should have heard some of the things she said to me!" Dave said, throwing back the rest of his drink.

"I do know what she said to you, she told me and she feels horrible about it, but you also said some things to her that weren't the nicest. You can't keep treating her like a child Dave; eventually you are going to have to realize that she's twenty years old, not ten."

Dave sighed. "I know, but I can't stand seeing her make bad choices, how can I _not _get involved?"

"You have to realize that you, Aaron and Penelope raised her well. Of course she's going to make some bad choices in life, we all do! You need to learn how to let some of them go because if you don't, you are going to lose her entirely and that would be a shame because I know she values the relationship she has with you. She misses you, Dave"

He pondered that for a moment. "She really feels bad about our argument?"

"She _really_ does, she just doesn't know how to fix it." Mel said, standing. "Maybe you can help her with that," she said as she left the table.

**********

The party had been in full swing for an hour and it was exactly what Jane needed after the last three and a half weeks of dealing with her marriage, annulment and her family. Her friends were making anti-wedding toasts, they were all gorging themselves on wings and Jane was having a great time. Along with all of her friends, her dad's team was there and it was nice being on good terms with Erin and Penelope again.

The only brief moment of stress came when Penelope and Hotch overheard a conversation between Mel and Jane.

"So if I had gotten pregnant by Marshal while we were married, but then had the baby after our annulment, would the baby have been considered as having been conceived out of wedlock?" Jane asked Mel.

"Hmmm…that's a tough one…" She said.

"I know! Because we would have been married at the time, but the annulment makes it so the marriage never took place, so…I don't know!" Jane looked up when she heard the sound of a throat clearing. She saw that her dad and Pen were standing behind her and they did not look amused.

"Um, you know what I did here, Mel? I made a joke about this WAY too early! Sorry Pen, sorry dad." Jane said.

Aaron just walked away, shaking his head. Pen sat down next to her and started talking with Mel. Emily, who was on the other side of her, mentioned that she wanted another glass of wine.

"I'll get it for you, Emily. I'm going to the bar anyway to get another Sprite." Jane said.

"Thanks Jane," Emily said, handing her some cash.

Jane made her way to the bar, checking her text messages as she did so.

"Can I help you, miss?" The bartender asked her.

Jane looked up from her cell phone and smiled. "Can I get a glass of Merlot please?" She asked.

"Isn't that what got you into this situation in the first place?" She heard a gruff voice ask her. She looked down the bar and saw Dave sitting at the end.

Dave, for his part, felt bad about the way his question came out. He missed his goddaughter and wanted to make things right with her. Thankfully, Jane smiled at him.

"Nah, I don't like wine, I like the hard liquor. _THAT_ is what got me into this mess," she said, as she paid the bartender and then asked for a refill of her Sprite. "The wine is for Emily, the Sprite is for me." She said as she sat down next to him. She snagged a friend of hers who was walking back to the room, handed her the glass of wine and asked her to give it to Emily. Once the friend left, Jane took a deep breath and turned to Dave.

"I'm sorry, Dave. I said some awful things to you that I shouldn't have when we were in my dad's office." Jane said. She didn't think she was completely in the wrong, but she would take full blame if it meant that she and Dave were talking again.

To her surprise, Dave also apologized. "I'm sorry too, Jane. I shouldn't have flown off the handle like I did and I shouldn't have treated you like a child…it's just that in my mind you are still ten years old."

They sat in silence for a moment. "So are we all right then?" Jane asked, a little meekly.

Dave smiled, "We are."

"Good…I really am sorry, Dave. I never should have said anything about your reputation. You have always treated me with respect and I have never seen you treat a woman any other way." Jane felt bad about those comments she made.

Dave sighed, "I was that man once, Jane. I used to get women and not care about their feelings, but that's not me anymore. That reputation is in the past."

They both sat in silence for another minute. "I'm glad we're OK; I've missed talking to you!" Jane told him, smiling.

"I've missed you too, sweetie. How about we grab dinner tomorrow night and you can catch me up with what's been going on in your life?" Dave asked her.

"I would love to, but tomorrow night doesn't work for me; I have a date." Jane told him.

Dave's eyebrows rose. "That was quick! Weren't you a married woman up until about five hours ago?"

'Damn,' Jane thought, 'This could ruin any progress that was just made.' "Um, my date is with Marshal."

"Marshal?! As in your former husband Marshal?!" Dave asked in disbelief.

"Dave, please don't be upset! Let's meet for lunch tomorrow and I will catch you up on this. OK?" Jane was practically begging.

He relented, "Alright Jane."

Jane was relieved. Out of the corner of her eye she saw Marshal enter the restaurant. She got up from her seat, gave Dave a kiss on the cheek and then went and met Marshal.

Hotch sat down in Jane's vacated seat, his eyes on his daughter the whole time. "I'm glad to see you two made up."

Dave, who was also watching Jane, sighed and said, "Do you really think this is a good idea, Aaron?" He asked, jerking his head towards Jane and Marshal.

Aaron sighed and then responded, "I'm not sure Dave, but if there is one thing I've learned living with Jane, it's that I need to take one crisis at a time."

"Amen to that, Hotch." Dave said, taking a long drink of his scotch.

**********

_That's the end of this arc, I hope everyone liked it. I hope to update 'Every 40 Seconds' tomorrow._


	21. Chapter 21: Friday Fun

Disclaimer: Criminal Minds is owned by CBS. I own nothing but my imagination.

A Different Kind of Life-Chapter 21

Friday Fun

_**Jane is 16 years old in this chapter**_

Jane rolled over in bed and looked at her alarm clock. 10:32 am! 'Shit,' she thought, 'I overslept!' She jumped out of bed and looked out the window, hoping her clock was wrong and it would still be dark outside. Nope, it looked like the clock was right; she was over two hours late for school! She ran to her closet and grabbed the various parts of her school uniform, all the while thinking about the ways in which her father would kill her for this. He had been telling her all week that she needed to get more sleep and now she had overslept this long! She was dead.

She had just put her uniform top on when there was a knock at her bedroom door. "Jane, are you decent? Can I come in?" Shit, it was her dad! Had the school called him already? Was he here checking to make sure she was OK? In that split-second she contemplated pretending she was sick, but she knew that would never work. This was one of those times that she hated living with a profiler; her dad could _always _tell when she was lying. She decided to go with the truth and then beg for mercy. It sucked because she and her dad had just gotten over a big argument, one that resulted in her mistakenly being put on 'total lockdown' last weekend and now he was going to be pissed at her again. Maybe she could remind him of that and use last weekend as time served? Who was she kidding, she was dead and she knew it.

"Come in, dad." Jane called to him. She must have looked…interesting. She was wearing her pajama bottoms, her school uniform top, one sock and she had major bed head.

Hotch entered, holding a cup of coffee and before he could say a word, Jane started speaking rapidly, "I'm _so_ sorry dad! My alarm didn't go off and I just woke up. I know the school must have called you and I'll leave here for school as soon as I'm dressed and I know I'm in major trouble-" Hotch interrupted her.

"You didn't oversleep, Jane, I turned your alarm off." He told her.

Jane, who had been dancing on one foot while trying to get her other sock on, stopped dead. "What?"

"I turned your alarm off." Hotch repeated, handing her the cup of coffee. Jane accepted it and then stared at him, confused. "I know that you've been really busy this month both with your schoolwork and your after school job. Last night I overheard you on the phone telling Mel that today was a 'blow off' day for you; that you didn't have anything due or any tests and I decided that you needed sleep more than you needed to be in school today, so I turned your alarm off." He could see her look of shock and continued, "Since today is also a 'blow off' day for me, I decided to work from home this morning and then I figured we could get an early start to our father/daughter weekend this afternoon."

Jane was speechless. She stared at him for another minute, finally realizing that he was dressed in sweat pants and a t-shirt. "I'm sorry, who are you and what have you done with my father?"

"What?" He asked, innocently.

"Do you remember when I had that stomach virus last spring? You walked in on me with my head in the toilet and still debated as to whether or not I was too sick to go to school. And then at the beginning of the school year I had strep throat and you argued with the doctor about whether or not I needed to stay home! You _never _let me take off and you never take off of work. What gives? Am I dying?"

Hotch looked slightly offended, "Nothing gives, I thought you could use the break!" Jane kept staring at him, giving him the infamous 'Hotchner Look.' "Alright, maybe I still feel guilty over the argument we had last weekend and I'm trying to make it up to you, OK?"

'Aw,' Jane thought, 'the poor guy feels guilty.' She shook her head, trying to make sense of her morning. "I really don't have to go to school today?"

"Not unless you _want_ to." He told her.

Jane broke out into a big grin. "Great! I'm going to go for my morning run and then I'll grab a shower."

"Do you mind if your old man tags along on your run?" Hotch asked her.

"If you think you can keep up," she told him, still grinning.

Hotch took the challenge, "I think I'll be able to hold my own."

**********

Hotch stood in the kitchen, frying up some bacon and eggs, still slightly winded. He thought it would be easy for him to keep up with Jane on her run…he had been wrong. He had been to a few of her track meets and knew she was fast, but seeing her run and running with her were two different things.

Jane entered the kitchen, her hair still wet from her shower. "Yum, smells good," she said, pouring herself another cup of coffee.

"You're just in time, breakfast is ready." Hotch told her, grabbing two plates and filling them with bacon, eggs and potatoes. Jane poured each of them a glass of OJ and they both sat down at the table. Technically they were eating lunch since it was almost noon, but neither of them cared about the name of the meal, it was the food that mattered.

There was silence for a few minutes as they both enjoyed their food, then Hotch spoke up.

"So what would you like to do this afternoon?" He asked her.

Jane thought for a minute, "I have no idea, it's been so long since I've had an afternoon completely free that I don't know what to do."

Hotch frowned at that, she shouldn't be so busy, she should be enjoying her childhood years. He pushed that thought to the back of his head, it was something he would address later. "The homecoming dance is next weekend, how about we go shopping for a dress? We could go to Old Town Alexandria and make an afternoon of it."

Jane stared at him and was once again struck speechless. "OK, so I know _I'm_ not dying, are _you _dying?"

"What are you talking about?" Hotch asked.

"You _hate _shopping!" Hotch started to protest, but Jane kept talking. "No dad, you hate it, so why would you want to spend a day shopping with me? Besides, Penelope and I have plans to go dress shopping on Monday night, and there is no _way_ I'm going to piss her off."

"So let's go out and do some preliminary shopping, that way you'll know what you want and what you don't want when you go out with Garcia." Hotch sighed, seeing the look of indecision on her face. "Look Jane, you're growing up and I feel like I've missed out on a lot of things with you. I know I let Penelope pick up a lot of the slack, especially when it comes to girl stuff and soon you'll be going away to college and I don't want to look back at this time in our lives with a lot of regrets."

Jane softened, "Ok dad, let's go shopping but if we find a dress and buy it, _you're_ telling Penelope!"

Hotch smiled, "Deal. So is the rest of our agenda for the weekend still a go?"

"It is; tomorrow we hit our favorite places in the district and then on Sunday we soak up the rest of the summer sun in Virginia Beach."

"You realize that it is in fact fall, don't you Jane?" Hotch asked her with a smile.

She returned it, "I know, but it's supposed to be sunny and in the low 80's on Sunday. It might as well be summer."

"Sounds good," Hotch said, standing up. "I'm going to jump in the shower and then we'll head out."

Jane thought about the afternoon ahead of her as she washed the breakfast dishes. She had never really gone clothes shopping with her dad; before her mom died she usually went with her and since her mom died she usually went with Penelope or Mel. 'This could be a lot of fun,' she thought as she ran the dishwasher.

**********

Two hours later, Jane was convinced that her father had conceived the plan to go dress shopping as an elaborate way to torture her. They had already been to two dress shops and she had tried on about seven dresses and they still couldn't come to an agreement.

Hotch held up a dress, "What about this?"

Jane wrinkled her nose, "That's something a grandmother would wear." She pulled a dress off of the rack, "How about this?" She said, holding it up to herself.

Hotch shook his head, "That's something that Julia Roberts would have worn in _Pretty Woman_ and I mean before her transformation into a Beverly Hills lady."

Jane, offended and irritated by this point, practically threw the dress back onto the rack and looked over at her dad who was holding up another dress.

"_That's_ something a nun would wear," she said. Hotch thought about that for a minute and pushed the dress towards her again, it sounded good to him.

"Boys like a little mystery, Jane." He told her, also irritated by this point.

"Yeah, but they also like to see a little skin. I could wear that dress in Saudi Arabia and not get hassled. What about this one?" Jane said, holding up another dress.

Hotch just stared at it, "It's strapless and the back is cut WAY too low." He pinched the bridge of his nose. "Why don't we stick with your original plan and let Penelope help you pick out your dress?" Hotch trusted Garcia with the task. While she herself might dress…uniquely, she knew what Jane liked and she knew what was appropriate for someone her age.

Jane put the dress back on the rack and smiled in relief. "That sounds like a great idea dad."

They left the store, popping into other stores along the way down the street. After a few blocks, Jane stopped in front of a Gap store.

"Do you mind if we go in here for a minute? I need some new jeans and they are having a big sale on sweaters." Jane asked, hoping it wouldn't be a repeat of the dress shops.

"Sure thing, sweetie." He said, holding the door open for her.

Jane gravitated immediately towards the jeans, while Hotch perused the men's section for a minute. Not surprisingly, he didn't find anything he liked for himself, the Gap was just too…well he couldn't put his finger on it, but he just didn't care for their men's clothing. When he went casual, he was more of an LL Bean kind of guy. He wandered over to the women's section to see what Jane was looking at. He performed a mini-profile on his daughter and then pulled a couple of tops off of the shelf.

"What about these, Jane?" He called out to her.

Jane turned around, dreading to see what her dad had picked out for her. 'Hmmm, not bad…in fact they are really kind of pretty,' she thought to herself. "Those are actually really nice, dad," she said in surprise.

Hotch smiled at her as he handed them to her, "God Jane, I am not totally fashion challenged."

'He's right,' Jane thought as she looked at the clothes he was looking at for her; there was nothing he was looking at that she wouldn't wear. 'Where did _that_ fashion sense come from?' She wondered to herself.

Hotch pulled a few more pieces of clothing off of the rack and held them out to Jane, who accepted them in a daze. Hotch realized that at the dress shop, he was choosing dresses that he would like her to wear, not dresses that she herself wanted to wear. Here at the Gap, the clothes were much more tame, so he didn't have to worry about Jane picking out anything…inappropriate, so he was much more relaxed.

An hour and many different outfits later, Jane was debating her final selection of clothes to buy. She definitely needed the two pairs of jeans she had in her arms and the khaki pants and black pants, but did she need so many tops and sweaters? She mentally added up the cost of the clothing and compared that with the balance in her savings account. She set down two of the skirts, one of the tops and two of the sweaters and made her way to the register.

"Is this all for you today?" The sales clerk asked as she began ringing up Jane's clothing.

"Yes, thank you." Jane said, digging through her purse for her debit card.

"No, it's not." Hotch said, coming up next to Jane. "Please add these to the purchase as well," he said to the sales clerk, handing her the clothing Jane had discarded, along with some earrings and a necklace she had been looking at. The clerk took the additional items and then Hotch handed her his credit card.

"What? No, dad, I can pay for this myself, I've been saving up-" Hotch interrupted her.

"Don't worry about it Jane, it's on me," he told her.

"Seriously dad, I was planning on paying for this with my savings." She protested.

"So use your savings for something else." Hotch could see that Jane was going to keep protesting, so he kept talking. "Jane, it's been years since I've gone back to school shopping with you, I realize now that it's one of those things that fell through the cracks after your mom died. You're sixteen years old, you shouldn't have to pay for all of your clothing by yourself and I know that you have been for the last few years, so this year it's on me."

"Well…thanks!" Jane said, still in shock. It wasn't the end of the shopping spree either. Her dad bought her some perfume and makeup that she wanted at Sephora, some shower gel she had been eyeing at Bath and Body Works and some books and a couple of CD's at Barnes and Noble. It was like Christmas come early for Jane.

In the car on the way home, they made plans for the night. "I have a little work I need to finish up this evening, but it shouldn't take me too long. What's on the agenda for tonight?" Hotch asked her.

"Weeelllll," Jane said, thinking, "We _could_ rent a movie, or else we could watch one of the _many_ TV shows we have sitting on the DVR. I think we're coming up to the end of the memory on it."

"Losing myself to mindless TV sounds good." Hotch said. Secretly, he loved trashy, mindless TV. It was something Jane knew, but she had been sworn to secrecy about it.

"How about we sweeten the night by also gorging ourselves on junk food?" Jane asked him.

"That also sounds good." He said, pulling into the Safeway grocery store parking lot.

Once inside, both he and Jane were like little kids in a candy store. Their grocery cart quickly filled up with ice cream, chocolate syrup, M&M's, Reese's Pieces, cheese puffs, popcorn and soda. As they were approaching the checkouts, Jane grabbed a jar of nacho cheese sauce and threw it in the cart.

"Do we need to go back for chips?" Hotch asked.

"Nope." Jane said. Hotch looked at her questioningly, "Trust me on this one, OK dad?"

Shaking his head, Hotch started unloading the cart onto the conveyor belt.

**********

After a dinner of sautéed chicken, wild rice and cauliflower (Hotch wanted to order pizza, but Jane insisted on cooking something healthy), Jane changed into her PJ's and they both flopped onto the couch. After some debate, they watched some shows from Sunday night: American Dad, King of the Hill, Family Guy and The Simpsons. After that, they got caught up on an episode of Glee and then after watching high school kids sing and dance, they decided to watch America's Next Top Model.

Hotch was getting ready to hit play on ANTM when Jane stopped him. "Hang on dad, I always love pigging out during this show and we haven't really made a dent in the junk food we bought today…"

"I like where your mind is going, Jane." Hotch said, getting up from the couch and making his way towards the kitchen. Jane followed him.

As Hotch was making himself an ice cream sundae, Jane was heating up the nacho cheese sauce in the microwave. "I still don't see what you are going to use that for." Hotch said, eating a big spoonful of ice cream right from the carton.

"You'll see." Jane said, pulling the cheese out of the microwave. She set it down on the counter, grabbed the bag of cheese puffs and held them out to her father. "Take a cheese puff and dip it in the nacho cheese." Hotch looked at her, dubiously. "God, it's not poison! Trust me on this," she said, shaking the bag at him.

Hotch hesitantly took a cheese puff and dipped it in the nacho cheese. The second he put it in his mouth, he knew his daughter was right, this was heaven!

"I will never doubt you again Jane" he promised solemnly as Jane giggled. "It is not right that something so bad for me tastes so good," he said as he gathered up the nacho cheese, cheese puffs and sundae and brought them into the living room.

**********

At around eleven o'clock, both Hotch and Jane had had their fill of junk food and moronic TV. Hotch got up from the couch with a groan and remembered the kitchen. He groaned again, "I forgot about the kitchen, it's a mess," he said, starting towards it.

"Just leave it, I'll clean up in the morning." Jane said tiredly.

Hotch stopped and turned around. "I'm sorry, I don't understand what you just said. I understand the words separately, but I don't understand them in the way you've put them together."

'Of course,' Jane thought, 'there is no way dad can leave a kitchen messy and sleep soundly.' Jane herself had no problem leaving the kitchen until the morning, but she knew her dad would stare at the ceiling all night wondering if the mess was multiplying or if they were getting bugs. With a sigh, Jane started to get up so she could help him.

"No, stay there." Hotch told her, "You look like you're really into that episode of South Park," he said as he made his way to the kitchen.

Jane, taking his advice, sprawled out on the sofa and within minutes she was dozing.

Forty-five minutes later, Hotch came into the living room to find Jane asleep. He stared at her for a minute, wondering what to do. He didn't want to leave her on the couch because he knew she'd wake up sore and they still had a lot of walking to do the next day, but he didn't want to wake her because she was as much of an insomniac as he was and he knew she would have a hard time getting back to sleep. Finally he decided to carry her to her room. He gently picked her up in his arms and made his way to the stairs, careful not to wake her or jostle her too much. He got to her room, tucked her in and made his way back to his own room. He was looking forward to the rest of their father/daughter weekend.

**********

_So between the angsty stuff I've been writing for this story and for 'Every 40 Seconds,' plus my boring school papers, I decided I needed to write something happy. I am hoping this will be a three chapter arc, but every time I've set a chapter number, I've gone over the number so who knows how long this will be._

_BTW, cheese puffs dipped in nacho cheese sauce IS heaven!_

_Reviews?_


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